


The Time Danny Was Not (Vivi)Dissected

by Arnim



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: (yet), Blood, Danny is Traumatized, Danny panics a lot, GIW, Guys in White - Freeform, Happy ending though, I Tried, I am learning and it's not impossible grammatically so we're doing it, I make liberal use of (), I think that's the right name, I've mentioned Kyle Weston, If I'm being Problematic at any point feel free to please call me out, Knife Wound, Nasty Burger (location), Not Phantom Planet Compliant (Danny Phantom), Reveal Fic, School, Skulker is there briefly but he doesn't talk or anything, Suspension Of Disbelief, and ectoplasm, because I hate it when things end sad or angsty, but Danny keeps saying Dissect and Agent M keeps saying Vivisect., character death is because Danny is dead go figure, he doesn't know it is though, he doesn't trust them, he has a like a speaking line but only one, he supplies a knife, idk if redacted pronouns is a thing, none of the science is accurate but he's a ghost so, not graphic, reference to previous vivisection, reference to stitches, tags only cover the first few chapters I guess I'll just add more if I end up posting more, teen and up because idk, there are swears but I censor them, there is blood, they mention Mr. Lancer but he's not technically a character yet, what even are titles idk
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-06
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-18 02:41:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 19
Words: 25,564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29236230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arnim/pseuds/Arnim
Summary: Nocturna Starr's Phic Phight prompt: It turns out that the views of Agents O and K are not held by the rest of the Guys in White. Basically, the GiW scientists are horrified when the two newest agents bring in a fourteen-year-old half-ghost kid for "painful experiments". (I know it was a prompt from 2019, but who says I can't be 2 years late)(That's the premise I started with anyhow.)Basically Danny gets captured by the GiW (Agents O and K) and released by the GiW (Agents M, J, R, et al). O and K get fired and Danny goes free. No plot unfortunately, just sequences of semi-related events.
Comments: 47
Kudos: 147





	1. Danny is Captured (short)

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Shift](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23446735) by [Alexa_Piper](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alexa_Piper/pseuds/Alexa_Piper). 



> It is not good. It is not edited. I have no plot. It's probably pretty ooc. There are massive gaps that I probably will never come back and fill in. Feedback will endear you to me forever.  
> I never thought that when I finally worked up the courage to share something it would be a Danny Phantom fic first-draft that happened because I rewatched the show during quarantine. Here you go.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Skulker can aim, but the GiW can't. Danny suffers for both.

The GiW were  _ jerks _ and Danny was  _ not  _ enjoying his day.

He hadn’t been enjoying it to start with—Boxy had gotten out four times before lunch, Desiree had interrupted his math test, which meant  _ another  _ failing grade, and now Skulker was attacking him—but the GiW were certainly not making it better. They never did, but Danny still hadn’t stopped hoping that one day they would just. Leave. Go away, get out of his city, out of his life, just leave him alone, stop  _ bothering  _ him, stop trying to  _ catch _ him and  _ shoot _ him. Didn’t they get that there were other people in place to do that? People he actually liked?

Not that he wanted his parents and Val to keep shooting at him. Or to shoot at him at all. Or chase him. Or shout at him. Or hate him. He really wished people didn’t hate him. His parents just wanted to rip him apart “molecule by molecule” for the horrible crime of being a ghost, and Valerie wanted revenge for him “ruining her life.” At least they had reasons, though Skulker just wanted to hang his pelt.

Oh boy. Skulker. He was still here somewhere, and he  _ always _ took advantage of Danny’s midfight distractedness. Meaning there should be a rocket or a missile or a laser or a dart or some other kind of weapon about to hit him. He went intangible as a defence, hoping  _ whatever _ Skulker had coming his way would go through him.

The weapon was a knife, and it did go through him. Then gravity took it, and it went down, down, down toward the GiW Agents O and K, who weren’t expecting it.

Danny dove after the knife, and Skulker dove after him, and the ground approached faster and faster, but it still wasn’t as fast as the knife was reaching the agents who didn’t even seem to have noticed the knife, just the two ghosts diving at them.

Agent K pulled out a large gun and took aim.

Danny recognized that weapon. It helped that these were the guys in white and the phase-proof net launcher was bright green, but even if they had painted over the logo, he would’ve known it. His father had been tinkering with the launching mechanism for the past week, spreading the pieces across the kitchen table before reassembling them across from Danny’s homework. Danny knew the weapon, and he knew to fear it.

It wasn’t the weapon itself that was scary, especially since this would be one that his father  _ hadn’t _ fixed the launching mechanism of. It was the net that had Danny worried.

The net couldn’t be cut. Not by knives, not by wire cutters, not by lasers, not by ectoblasts, not by  _ anything _ . Not even after being frozen. And while that wouldn’t normally be a problem for him, the net couldn’t be  _ phased _ through, either. Not like most phase-proof technology, which was more of a nuisance than a real threat now. The net was for real, actually phase-proof, no matter how hard he tried, or for how long. Not even possession-phasing would get him through it. Once a ghost (or human) was caught in that net, it was over. The net couldn’t be cut or phased through or torn. It could only be untangled. There was no escape, only release.

And the GiW wouldn’t release a ghost.

And Danny couldn’t let the knife hit them.

“Target the mecha ghost,” Agent O said. “Phantom is a lesser threat.”

“More valuable target,” Agent K argued.

“If we die we won’t catch either.”

“True.” Agent K adjusted their aim for Skulker.

Good.

Not that Danny would let the GiW take Skulker. No one deserved to be taken by the Guys in White. Skulker probably wouldn’t have let them take him either, but Danny was the one who was trying to catch the knife, the one who actually cared about protecting people who tried to kill (capture) him.

Agent K fired the net at Skulker.

Danny caught the knife.

The launching mechanism hadn’t been fixed yet.

Time slowed down in a way that wasn’t Clockwork’s doing as Danny felt the net close around him. It closed and sealed, meaning there was no way for him to get himself out (would Skulker actually rescue him from the GiW? He hadn’t wanted to find out). It tangled around his legs and his outstretched arms, keeping him from moving too much at all, and then it began to tighten. His ensnared limbs were pulled toward his chest, and the knife he’d saved the GiW agents from sank slowly between his ribs.

He’d forgotten about the ground, too focused on the knife and the pain coming from where it pierced him. It wasn’t that he suddenly remembered the ground’s approach, so much as it was that he felt the way his leg bent and then  _ snapped _ where it was pinned beneath him. His head met the ground next.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> He's okay, I promise. Just not yet.


	2. POV J (short)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Agent J dislikes Field Operatives O and K because they always make a mess of things, but this is the biggest mess xe's seen yet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Always feel free to tell me if I made a mistake or am being Problematic. :)

Agent J was one of, if not  _ the _ most important GiW operative. Xe wasn’t an especially strong agent, and xe didn’t have a lot of experience, and xe didn’t understand even a third of the research surrounding xem. And xe didn’t get along with all of the field agents.

O and K were field agents. As active agents, it was expected that they would be in breach of proper hygienic conduct more frequently and for longer than other agents, the ones who worked at desks or in labs. But O and K were so much worse. Unreasonably so. Like they’d given up.

Agent J understood the mud and the dirt and the bugs. Those were things that existed outside, so sometimes agents who went outside had to deal with them. Xe didn’t envy the field agents that.

The ectoplasm Agents O and K seemed to cover themselves in wasn’t standard for field agents—L and T had no such issues, nor did M and R—but J could handle it. The science divisions sometimes faced the ectoplasm stain challenge, and it was manageable. Blood stains were a little less manageable, but J could still do it. Sometimes Agents M and R would come back with some blood on their suits. And sometimes something went horribly wrong in the lab and there was blood to be cleaned up. But that was occasional. And only a bit. O and K somehow got themselves covered in it, and in ectoplasm, more often than could possibly be safe.

More difficult still were the rips, tears, and straight up holes Agent J found in Agent O and K’s suits. The agents themselves were never as damaged as the suits were, which J supposed was a good thing, but how? O and K were never hurt, besides during the GZ Invasion of Amity Park incident, and yet their suits were consistently shredded or torn or mangled or stretched or ripped or burned or melted or somehow damaged. With that much damage that regularly, O and K probably shouldn’t have been  _ alive _ anymore.

The worst were the food stains. The grease stains. The stains that came from wiping dirty fingers and hands on (previously) clean white suits. The ones that were careless (disgusting) or intentional (forbidden). There were just so many of them, and all the time, and some of them were  _ old _ , as though O and K hadn’t even noticed the marks. Or worse yet, like they had noticed and still done nothing.

Agent J didn’t like Agents O and K, and it was time to do something about it. Xe hadn’t met them, but xe didn’t think it would be hard to pick them out of a crowd of agents. They’d be the two total  _ slobs _ trying to blend in with their pristine colleagues.

It wouldn’t come to that, though. Agent J would just follow the  _ filth _ they had dragged in with them this time. Follow, and record, and when xe reached the end of the trail, when xe had Agents O and K pinned to a wall and witless, xe would give them a piece of xyr mind and demand an explanation for their crimes.

Technically not crimes. It wasn’t technically illegal to dirty (soil, ruin, wreck, destroy) so many suits all the time, and it wasn’t technically a crime to drag blood and ectoplasm and mud across J’s clean hallways, but boy was it rude. O and K were  _ always _ rude. They never paid attention when J tried to communicate, tried to  _ demand _ a response or a reason. They always just brushed xem off, treating xem like less. And J was sick of it. And sick of their mess.

Agents O and K were dragging a thrashing net through the hall. The net was the source of the mud—they must have dragged it along the ground outside—and of the ectoplasm—had they ever actually caught a ghost before?—and of the blood.

Blood. On the floor. From the net.

Ghosts didn’t have blood. They bled ectoplasm. There was ectoplasm coming from the net, yes, but also blood. Whatever Agents O and K had in that net, whatever was trying desperately to escape them, it wasn’t a ghost.

Agent J ran for help.


	3. POV M

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Agent M steps up to stop Agents O and K (with J's invaluable help). Local ghost-boy has been Traumatized™ and fears repeat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The bolded part are either Agent J talking (sign language) or the one section where Agent M slips into present tense. It's supposed to show like just how wrong it is and how upset she is about it.  
> 

M didn’t mind the lab work, but she would always be a field agent. As soon as R got the cast off, the two of them could get back out there, back into the field, into the uncontrolled environment. Until then, though, Agent M was stuck on night shift in the lab, in the stable, consistent drone of scientific inquiry. Nothing wrong with that, just. There was a reason she didn’t wear her uniform when they weren’t on official business. And that reason was that white was so easy to stain.

The table shuddered. The erlenmeyer flask tipped over. The ectoplasm splashed onto M’s lab coat, while both the electrode and thermometer broke on the floor. There would be  _ so _ much paperwork for this. Maybe R would want to do it for her? Couldn’t do much else while on bed rest.

M responded immediately to the hand on her shoulder. Thankfully she saw J’s face before she could flip xem onto xyr back.

“J?” she asked. “Something wrong?” Probably, if xe had rushed in fast enough to make a mess like this.

**Agents O and K. Dragging a net. Blood.**

M’s sign language wasn’t perfect, but she understood enough to understand the cause of J’s panic.

“Show me,” M said.

J turned and rushed back out of the lab, M hot on xyr heels. The experiment, and the paperwork, would have to wait.

The muddy, bloody, ectoplasmic path was clear right away. Agents O and K sure knew how to make a mess. J would have to spend hours to clean this up. But M didn’t think the mess was the important part. Not with how J was ignoring it altogether, just running down the hall, leading M to the source.

J and the trail led to one of the older labs, one mostly used for storage now. M’s nose was beginning to tingle as they approached the door, but when J threw it open, M immediately recognized two scents that generally spelled out a bad, bad day: blood and freshly spilled ectoplasm.

“Not the dissection table, not the dissection table,  _ please _ not the dissection table!”

M had been a GiW field operative for six and a half years, fresh out of college, and had worked a part-time internship with them while she earned her degree, and through her last two years of high school. She’d served for over a decade with the GiW, more than half of it in the field, constantly fighting against ridiculous odds for high stakes, including her own life and wellbeing. She had first aid training and trauma response qualifications. Last month, when R’s radius shattered and the bone poked through to the open air, M had finished the evac, captured the aggressive spirit, and used first aid to save her partner’s life before returning to base.

“Please! I’ll do anything!”

Agent M turned to the side and vomited before she could approach the. The dissection table.

“Please don’t. Please. Please. I can’t do that again. I can’t. I can’t. I can’t. I. I..”

**There is a living child strapped to the dissection table. He is covered in red and green. The net has a knife tangled in it, likely responsible for the horrible gushing of blood from the child’s chest. He is crying and begging. Not to be released. Just to not be vivisected,** **_again_ ** **.**

**“Ah, Agent M,” Agent O says. “Good of you to join us.**

**“Please please please, anything. Just don’t. Don’t. Don’t. Don’t.”**

**The child is beginning to hyperventilate.**

**“Yes,” Agent K says. “We’re field agents. We’d appreciate some assistance from a sciencey type such as yourself.”**

**The child is shaking. He is too pale. His eyes are wide as can be, and he is not blinking, not taking his eyes off of the agents who put him here, not for one second.**

**“Naturally we’ll need some more straps to hold him in place before we can begin,” Agent O says. “Agent K, can you grab—”**

**M feels Agent O’s nose break behind her hand, and she doesn’t have to think twice about throwing him on the floor, away from the kid.**

**Agent K approaches her, concerned, aggressive. She puts him on the floor, too.**

The child’s eyes were still huge, and his breathing still unnatural, but the type of fear his eyes held had changed. Agents O and K he had experience with; he knew what to expect from them. With them it would have all been bad, horrific and painful, but he would have known what to expect. But M had come in and removed the known threats. The kid had no idea what to expect from her, and he was still tied down to the dissection table.

He fought to get his breathing under control, and he stopped yanking against the restraints as M got closer. He was still fighting with his breath control, but the child stayed absolutely still as she raised a hand to undo his restraints. For half a second, the child’s blue eyes seemed to be  _ glowing _ .

M froze with her hand above the first restraint. “When I let you up, are you going to run or attack?”

“What?” the child asked.

“Your panic is directly related to the fear of vivisection, which is a whole other type of trauma unto itself,” M said. “But there’s a reason they kept you in the net all the way to the table. You can and will defend yourself, and I’m worried you’re going to view me as a threat and react accordingly.”

The kid sneered. “You  _ are _ a threat. O and K were lucky to catch me; Skulker did most of the work, and they weren’t even aiming for me. But I watched you take them down. If I treat you like I treat them, you’ll kill me.”

“I would like to give you first aid,” M said. “You’re bleeding rather quickly. And I would like to get you off of this table. Your response to it has been a whole other kind of messed up.”

“It’s messed up that I don’t want to be dissected? What kind of monster  _ are _ you?”

“ _ Again _ ,” M said. “It’s messed up that you can say you don’t want to be vivisected  _ again _ .”

The child rolled his eyes. “Right. Because after the first couple times, I should’ve been  _ expecting _ it, right?”

The child met M’s eyes, and the intensity was far beyond what anyone should have been able to manage covered in  _ that much _ of their own blood.

“Go to *hE.* You’re the monster, not me.”

J ran into the table and set the lab’s first aid kit down between the kid’s knees.

The kid’s eyes jerked to J when xe hit the table. “And your assistant, here with your tools,” the kid said. “Ready to get started? Wait, lemme guess. ‘ _ Leave the digestive tract alone until we’ve been able to starve it for a week. No reason to make any unnecessary messes. _ ’ Ha!”

That was way too specific to be a guess. M had seen a lot of stuff in her time with the GiW, but if she hadn’t already been, that fact would have made her sick.

J got a rag over the cut and pressed down, hard.

“Ah!” The kid pulled their head up, trying desperately to see what was happening to him. “Stop it! Stop, please! What are you doing?!”

M released the strap across his forehead, and his head jerked up to see.

“Really?” The kid said. “Go in through the wound? Won’t work. ‘Waste of a day, useless samples.’ Save us both some time and make your own incisions. *gE.*”

It was a different voice. The kid was definitely repeating things people had said about (above) him, and he had said them in two distinct voices. Whoever it had been, they’d had him long enough, they’d hurt him bad enough, that he knew their voices.

“Agent J is trying to stop the bleeding,” M said. “It would be great if you wanted to work with us.”

“I don’t.”

“I know,” M said. “I’m going to let your feet loose now, okay? I’m not going to release your whole body until either we finish some first aid or I know you’ll stay long enough to let us help.”

“And why should I believe that,” he said.

“You probably shouldn’t,” M said. “I’m a field agent; Agent J works from base. If you’re going to kick, kick me.” She released his legs, beginning at the ankles and working up toward his hips.

“They said. They said you were a science officer.”

J went to lift xyr hands, but then pressed down again.

“Go ahead.” M took xyr place, pressing down on the wound.

**Agents O and K are incompetent, helpess, and apparently cruel. They breach protocol more often than is excusable and their paperwork is never complete on time.**

Agent M went to translate, but the kid spoke first.

“Can’t argue with that. So that’s you saying they were wrong? This agent is a field agent?”

J nodded.

“I am,” M said.

“Funny,” the kid said. “Because I never see you around Amity Park. And you just really don’t look the part, with the lab coat and all.”

“I’m not assigned to Amity,” M said.

J dug in the first aid kit.

“My partner has a broken arm. I’m working in base until the cast comes off and we can get back out there.”

“So what area do  _ you _ terrorize?” The kid rolled his eyes.

“Agent R and I operate from a mobile unit. When someone calls in a problem, we go deal with it. O and K were assigned to Amity Park, due to the frequency of reports.”

“Oh. Yeah. Couple times a day, lately.”

“What’s your name?” M checked how bad the bleeding was. It was stopping, thankfully.

“I think their file calls me Subject 8-1A,” the kid said.

“I don’t care what their file says.” M  _ did _ care, but she would deal with that issue later, once the kid was stitched up and stable. “What name do you go by?”

“...What colour is my hair?”

“Black.” M didn’t understand the question. “Why?”

The kid nodded and laid his head back. “You can call me Dan...oh.”

“Dan?” M asked.

The kid (Dan?) raised his head again. “No.  _ Never _ Dan. It’s Danny.”

**DANNY** , J signed.  **I’m going to clean the wound. This may sting.**

“Oh, it’ll more than sting,” Danny said. “Do it.”

M raised the cloth off, glad to see that the bleeding had basically stopped.

J moved in with the antiseptic.

Danny grit his teeth and sucked in.

M dropped the blood-soaked cloth on the ground. It was a problem for later. She got ready to give him stitches.

“If, um. Is. Ha. No. Of course not.”

“Is what, Danny?” M asked.

“No, nothing,” Danny said through grit teeth. “Nothing at all.”

“What is it?”

“Just.” He gave an exasperated sigh. “I just really hate it when people try to give me stitches. Because you’re going to do it  _ wrong _ , and it’s not going to  _ work _ , and then you’re going to be  _ upset _ , and  _ I’ll _ be ‘punished for purposefully invalidating your efforts to return me to prime condition for research.’ Um. I mean. I’m just...not a fan of needles?”

It was M’s turn to sigh. “You’re not going to be vivisected. I understand why you can’t believe that yet, though. Why won’t they work?”

“Forget it.” Danny shook his head. “It’s too weird to walk you through without actually showing you.”

“Then show me.” M undid the restraints on Danny’s arms—he was calm enough now, it would be safe. He’d given them a name, and was talking with them. Surely he wouldn’t run off on them right away.

“Um.” He sat up. “Really? You’re just..letting me go?”

She held the needle and thread out to him. “Show me.”

“Right. So you can do it yourself next time, instead of letting a fully healed enemy handle something sharp.”

“I have already said I am not trying to harm you and you will not be vivisected,” M said. “I will continue to tell you until you believe me.”

“And if I choose not to?” Danny asked.

“Then get ready to hear it a whole lot,” M said.

Danny took the needle. He pulled the thread off. “Okay. So, first off, this thread is useless.”

“Metal sutures, then?” M asked.

“What you gotta do is get yourself a bunch of Fenton Fishers and take the ectoline out of them.”

“Fenton,” M said. “The Fentons had you captured?”

“No,” Danny said. “Not the point. So you get the ectoline and you—” He looked at Agent J.

**Should I start sending for a Fenton Fisher?**

“No,” Danny said. “I’m just going to freeze it for now while I do..this!” His blue eyes glowed a moment, and the room got colder.

M’s feet froze together as a ring of light appeared around Danny’s stomach.

“It’s not gonna melt, but I’m sure you’ll figure it out.” The light spread around Danny both ways, and he changed. White became black, and jeans became jumpsuit, and finally his hair turned white. He jumped off of the table, head toward the door. He made it off of the table and past the agent on the floor before he lost height and smashed into the floor. The rings of light came back and his appearance returned to how it had been before. He’d used too much energy in his condition, and he’d passed out.

“Hate to say it,” M said. “But it just might be easier this way. If he’s frozen the wound shut, it’ll probably start healing. And we can start figuring out his blood type right away.”

J raised xyr hands.  **Take him to medical center.**

“Right,” M said. “There’s gotta be a stretcher in here somewhere.” She stepped away from the table to look. She  _ tried _ to. It didn’t work. Her feet were frozen together; she wasn’t going anywhere.

**Bring the medical center here** , J signed.

“I guess,” M said. “Unless you think you can carry him there by yourself.”

J shook xyr head.  **Back soon** . Xe paused to shift Danny into the recovery position, then vanished out the door.

This kid needed a lot of help, mostly not medical.

  
  



	4. Danny Wakes Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After his incredible escape from the GiW, Danny wakes up and tries to figure out where he is.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mention of hospital-ish stuff I guess. Mention of Vlad (he's not there). Mention of stab wound, concussion (idk if a concussion test is a real thing but I've seen it in other fics so), and broken leg. Painkillers. Danny panics but he's actually okay.  
> I haven't decided what point in the year this happens so the "dates" are replaced with stand-ins. Sorry.

Danny wasn’t sure where he was, but he remembered escaping, and he was very tired, so he didn’t worry about it too much. He was comfortable, meaning he was safe, meaning he’d made it back to Amity Park and was at home or at one of his friends’ houses. Hopefully not Tucker’s, his parents would ask questions if they found him there again, third time this week, but anywhere was better than captured by the GiW.

Actually, this probably was Tuck’s place. The blankets at Sam’s were ridiculously heavy, and he hid by covering his head with the blankets, too. That way even if Sam’s parents checked the room, they wouldn’t see him unless they opened the bed.

But at Tucker’s he hid by laying on the floor between the wall and Tuck’s bed, and he was definitely in a bed right now. That left his house, but Danny was sure he would recognize the feel of his own bed, and this wasn’t it.

Maybe he’d come back injured. He had been stabbed, and he’d lost a lot of blood and ectoplasm. It helped explain why he didn’t remember where he was or how he got here. Tucker probably would’ve seen that and panicked, meaning. Meaning Tucker had given him his bed? But it was warm, which meant  _ sharing _ the bed. That was better, meant Tucker wasn’t sleeping on his own floor just so Danny wasn’t. What had Danny ever done to deserve such amazing friends?

And speaking of said amazing friends, Tucker would probably want to know that Danny was okay. Danny knew he hadn’t been in good shape, and Tucker would be worried that he hadn’t done much responding yet. Unless of course he  _ had _ responded and now just didn’t remember, which would be a whole  _ different _ problem.

Danny opened his eyes and reached out to let Tucker know he was okay.

Tucker wasn’t there. Danny’s arm hit a bar on the edge of the bed.

This wasn’t Tucker’s room, this wasn’t Tucker’s bed. This was a hospital room and a hospital bed, and Danny was the only one in it. He sat up and pushed the blanket down to his waist. The blanket was warm on it’s own, not from someone else’s body heat. He raised the blanket over his head for a minute. It wasn’t the same as a hug, but it was the best he was going to get.

There were a few different scenarios that could lead to him waking up in the hospital. He could’ve made it back and Tucker, Sam, or Jazz (or all of them together) could’ve decided it was too big for them to handle, and they could’ve taken him to the hospital. He could’ve made it back to Amity Park and have been found by someone who didn’t know his secret. He checked his hair: black. If someone had found Danny Fenton by the side of the road, everything was still okay. If they’d found Phantom, it meant that his secret was out. But he wasn’t in his parent’s lab, so they didn’t know. Yet.

Or, he supposed, he could’ve gotten away from the GiW but  _ not _ have made it back to Amity. He could’ve been found on the side of the road in either form by someone who didn’t know about ghosts and be in a hospital that wasn’t in Amity Park or Elmerton. That would suck, but it would be manageable. They’d probably charge him some sort of medical fee and refuse to release him until someone picked him up, since he was a minor. He could borrow a phone and call Jazz to come get him, once he found out where he was, and Sam would probably be happy to help with the expense. Well, not  _ happy _ , because it meant he had gotten hurt badly somewhere where she couldn’t help him, but still. She’d help.

Oh. Or there was the horrible option, where  _ Vlad _ had found him. Danny  _ hated _ it when Vlad helped him because it meant that Vlad would come back and try to get  _ his _ help with something, and that never went well.

It wouldn’t be Vlad, though. Vlad had nothing better to do than sit there and wait for Danny to wake up, and he wasn’t there. Danny would be able to tell if Vlad was nearby.

Danny took a deep breath. He was still tired, but the pain was minimal (less than he thought it should have been. How long had he been out?), so he should get going on fixing whatever problem this was. If he really was in some other city, the sooner he let people know where he was, the better. And the sooner Jazz could start coming to get him, the better. The longer he was awake, the less this felt like Amity.

He pushed the blanket off of his head. Time to find a nurse or something and find out where he was.

“Was the light too bright?”

Oh good, there was someone here already. Saved him the effort of going to find someone while he, apparently, had a broken leg.

“I’ve turned them down.”

“Um. Thanks,” Danny said.

“Can you feel your leg?”

Danny finally found the speaker. She was sitting in a chair to the side of the bed, holding a phone. She wasn’t dressed like a doctor or nurse, just like a regular person. Maybe she was the one who found him and brought him here?

Oh, rats. She had said something. She was waiting for an answer.

“What?” Danny asked. “I. Sorry, I didn’t, um.”

“I asked if you could feel your leg,” she said. “Does it hurt?”

“Oh,” Danny said. “No, it’s fine.”

“What about the stab wound?” the lady asked. “Can you feel that?”

“Um.” Okay, so, she knew he had a stab wound. And she wasn’t asking if they hurt, she was asking if he could  _ feel _ them.

Which, come to think of it, no. He couldn’t. He couldn’t feel his broken leg, or his  _ other _ leg, or anything below his waist. Had he somehow messed up his escape enough to have paralyzed himself? When people couldn’t feel their legs anymore, they couldn’t move them, right? He would _ never _ be able to explain this to his parents.

“You okay?” The woman leaned closer and put a hand on his shoulder. “Does it hurt?”

The stab wound didn’t hurt, really. It was just a dull throb, and it was easy to ignore. But..

“I can’t,” Danny said. “I can’t feel my legs. I can’t feel my legs. At all. I can’t feel them.”

“What about the stab wound?” the woman asked.

Danny wasn’t super concerned with the stab wound at the moment. He was more worried about his legs and how he would never walk again. Would that affect his flight? Or his ghostly tail?

A tear landed on his hand. He was crying. That wouldn’t help him out of this situation, but the paralysis wasn’t going to end if he didn’t cry.

“Does it hurt that much?” She took her hand off of his shoulder. “How could they make a painkiller that works so well you can’t feel your legs but that doesn’t take away the pain in your chest?”

“Pain. Painkillers?” Danny said.

“Yeah,” the woman said. “You were in bad shape. These are the strongest painkillers they’ve got. I don’t know what we’re going to do for the stab wound.”

“Then I’m. I’m not paralyzed?” That was a relief.

“What? No,” she said. “Why would...Oh, because you couldn’t feel your legs. So you thought that meant... Yeah, no. It’s just some  _ really _ strong drugs. So what parts of your body  _ can _ you still feel?”

“Um.” Danny sniffed and took a second to take stock. He couldn’t feel his legs, at all, of course. But what else? “My chest is just, like a pressure kind of pain? It’s not sharp, or anything. And it’s not much. Um. I’m. I think I’m mostly just all numb?”

“Good,” she said. “Because I’m not supposed to let you have any more painkillers for three and a half more hours.”

“Oh.” If she was in charge of giving him painkillers, then maybe she  _ was _ a doctor or nurse? But that still didn’t make sense, because then she would have been required to dress like one, and she didn’t. And she had her phone out. Danny was pretty sure no one got to carry their phone while they were working.

“If they wear off before then, though, they can do a quick blood test to check. For now it’s anyone’s guess how long it takes your body to get rid of the drug.”

“Okay.”

“Great. What’s your name?”

Because she wouldn’t know the name of a random kid she’d found on the side of the road somewhere, and Danny knew he didn’t have his wallet on him.

“Right. Um. Daniel James Fenton.”

The woman froze for a moment, then asked, “How old are you?”

“Fifteen.”

“What’s the date?”

“What?” Danny asked.

“Do you know what the date is?”

“Oh, concussion test,” Danny said.

The woman grimaced but nodded.

“It’s DATE-1”

“DATE, actually,” she said. “DATE-1 was yesterday.”

“Oh,” Danny said. “What time is it?”

“It’s four am,” she said.

“Oh. Um. Great.”

“Right,” she said. “So now that you’re not dying and you know who you are, let’s figure out what you’re going to tell your parents.”

“Um. Well. Uh. First, can I ask.”

“Yes?”

“Are you the one who brought me here?”

“No.”

“Oh. Where’s that person?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “Probably following whatever schedule xe usually does.”

“Okay. Cool. Um. So, I was..in a car accident. Um. I was hit with a piece of debris. Uh, that’s the stab wound thing. And my leg broke, so...”

The woman raised an eyebrow. “That’s the story you want to give them?”

“What?” Danny asked.

“Is there someone you could call who knows?” she asked. “Someone who can lie for you?”  
“What?” Danny asked. “Um. Why. Why would I lie to my parents?”

“You said your name was Fenton?”

Danny shrunk back into the bed. Wherever he was, it was somewhere close enough to home for his parents to have a reputation. “Yes?”

“I seriously doubt Jack and Madoline Fenton would take very kindly to learning their son’s a halfa. So if you—”

“What?!” Danny exclaimed. “I don’t know  _ what _ you’re talking about!? I’m not..not.. Whatever you said! I’m. I’m totally  _ normal _ and—”

“Danny,” the woman said.

He hadn’t told her to call him Danny, why would she know that? She should be calling him Daniel.

“I have no intention of telling your parents the truth,” she said.

Danny tried to pull himself together. “You. You don’t?” Danny asked. “But. But why? And what..What are you...”

“It’s probably not in your best interests for them to find out, right?” she asked.

“But. But why do  _ you _ know?”

“You changed in front of me,” she said.

“Oh.” Yeah, that would do it. His secret was blown. But, wait. “But how do you know what a halfa is?”

The woman raised an eyebrow. “I’d be a pretty sad excuse for a field agent if I didn’t have a basic understanding of ghosts.”

Field agent. Field agent. That’s why she knew to call him Danny. And he’d revealed his secret to her, and the whole GiW, and now they were going to keep him here forever and take him apart and do all the horrible painful experiments Agents O and K always reference, and

There was a hand on his shoulder. It was starting already.

  
  



	5. POV M, Danny Is Traumatized™

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Agent M spends a bit of time realizing how Traumatized™ Danny is.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Idk how to format texting so there's that.

M knew that this kid, Danny, was traumatized. Of course he was. A halfa living with the world’s foremost ghost haters? Technically they called themselves ghost hunters or ecologists, but really.

But when M put her hand on Danny’s shoulder, she realized just how much she did  _ not _ understand the scope of his trauma (and PTSD).

Danny had thought he’d escaped. He thought the GiW were evil and trying to vivisect him for torture and “research” too, but that was thanks to O and K.

Danny had thought he had made it out of the GiW headquarters. He’d thought he’d successfully frozen Agent M to the floor, evaded Agent J, and flown out of the building. He thought he’d made it away from the base and collapsed on the side of the road, then been found and brought to the hospital by a good samaritan.

Which meant he’d been so scared last night that he hadn’t managed to remember M’s face or voice.

Even though M had reassured him many times that she was trying to help him, not hurt him.

Even though she and J had actively been giving him first aid.

Even though he remembered the words and voices of multiple previous antagonists.

Even though he’d been paying enough attention to understand J without translation.

Even though he’d been paying enough attention to realize J couldn’t hear perfectly and to catch himself when he’d started to speak with his face away from J.

Even though he’d been paying close enough attention to see an opportunity to escape.

Even though he’d been able to lull her into believing he was actually going to let them help him.

Even though receiving first aid from the GiW (even Agents O and K) was arguably safer for him than going home.

M didn’t like the implications of all of that put together.

(And he’d denied when she’d asked if it had been the Fentons who.. And just because he denied it didn’t mean it wasn’t true.)

When M had put her hand on Danny’s shoulder, he had grabbed her wrist and thrown her on the floor. M wasn’t able to keep from falling— the ice still around her feet prevented her from bracing herself, but she managed to roll with it and protect her head.

Then Danny threw himself off of the bed and landed directly on top of her.

“Oh, Zone, I can’t fly,” he said. “I can’t fly, I can’t escape, I can’t. can’t. can’t...” He was shaking, trembling.

“Danny,” M said. “I know you feel like you’re in danger right now, but you’re not. Let me help you get back on the bed and we can talk this out, okay?”

“I. I don’t. I. I. Uh.”

“Yes?” M tried to be gentle as she shifted Danny off of her.

“Your feet. They’re. Still frozen.”

“Yes,” M said. “Your ice is never-melt, at least. You didn’t know that?”

“I mean, I  _ did _ , but. I thought you would’ve found some way to get rid of it.”

“Maybe,” she said. “If I’d been trying.”

“If you’d been... Why would you leave it on? Why wouldn’t you try? Why would they leave an incapacitated field agent  _ out of uniform _ in the room to keep control of a subject?”

“You’re not a subject,” M said. “And I’m not here to keep control of you. I’m here to help you.”

“Help me what?”

“In general, mostly,” M admitted. “Your life situation scares me, and I plan to apply to be transferred to Amity Park.”

“But. What about Agents O and K?”

“Fired,” M said. “Will you let me help you?”

“...” He looked at her like he was evaluating her. “How?”

“Well I was going to start by putting you back on the bed.” M raised an eyebrow. “If that’s alright with you.”

“You. You have to answer a question first!” Danny said. “Or. Or I’ll freeze the whole room.” He brought a hand up to go with the threat.

“You don’t have to make threats,” M said. “You can just ask questions.”

Danny didn’t lower his hand. “Why. Why aren’t you in uniform?”

“White stains easy,” M said. “And I’m off duty.”

“You don’t like wearing white?” Danny rolled onto his back and sat up. “Why?”

“I don’t have anything against it.” M stood and motioned to the bed.

Danny nodded distradedly, still paying attention to her answers.

“And when Agent R and I need to act official, the white suits make quite an impression.” She got one arm under Danny’s thighs—under his knees would jostle the broken leg—and the other behind his back. She lifted him. “But usually when we do field work, R and I will wear work clothes. Looking official is good for official matters. But when you have to interact with people, it's not helpful to look like a government lackey.”

She set Danny down on the bed and pulled the blanket out from under him.

“So you do undercover work?” Danny pulled the blanket up over his hips, but he didn’t lay down again.

“You could call it that.” M adjusted the bed to be sitting up. “If you really wanted. But the essence of it is that I’m not the government, I’m an expert in my own right. I don’t need to be seen as a GiW Agent to be competent.”

“GiW is the  _ opposite _ of competent.” Danny crossed his arms and looked away.

“Agents O and K have been fired,” M said. “Whatever team actually gets the Amity assignment will also be responsible for conducting a full investigation into their actions. Once the investigation is done, they’ll be prosecuted.”

“Like. In trouble. They’re going to be in trouble for. For what?”

“Probably a lot of things,” M said. “First and foremost, for abducting, threatening, and critically injuring a child.”

“I’m a teenager.”

“You’re a minor.”

“And that doesn’t legally obligate you to inform my parents about my reckless behaviour, or something?” Danny asked.

There were a lot of things it obligated M, and the whole GiW, to do. Telling his parents he was part ghost was  _ not _ one of them.

“No,” M said. “But it does mean that someone has to sign approval for the transfusion.”

“You’re taking my blood?” Danny sneered. “Or did you want the ectoplasm? Big surprise.”

“You were given a transfusion while you were unconscious,” M said. “It was done to save your life. Hopefully this doesn’t go against any of your beliefs.”

“Bele...no,” Danny said. “It doesn’t. Um, but. You consider me alive?”

“Yes.”

Danny’s arms fell open and his shoulders sagged as he sat back against the raised bed. Telling him he was alive brought that much relief?

“Of course,” M continued. “One obligation I  _ do  _ have, as a GiW field agent, is to protect life. That includes you.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“..Okay.”

That was a victory. He made a concession, dropped the question. He accepted her answer as valid enough for the time being. Excellent.

“So...” Danny said. “Can  _ I _ sign off on the transfusion?”

“Unfortunately, no,” M said.

“Could...my sister?”

“How old is she?”

“Seventeen,” Danny said. “But she’ll be eighteen in five months!”

M shook her head. “Too far away. Are there any adults in on your identity?”

Danny rolled his eyes. “Other than you? No. Well.” He paused. “No.”

There was a potential ally in that direction for sure, but M wasn’t going to press it.

“Why do you want the Amity Assignment?” Danny asked.

“R and I have been working from one of the mobile units for five years,” she said. “It would be nice to have a full size fridge and not live out of an RV.”

“That’s it?” Danny asked.

No. That wasn’t it at all. M wanted to be able to look out for this kid, make sure he was safe, make sure his parents didn’t kill him by accident—or on purpose.

“It’s also a stable posting with very little top-down interference,” she said. “Meaning I don’t have to wear white three quarters of the time as we roll into new towns. And on top of that? Ex-Agents O and K gave the GiW a bad name, it would seem. I’ve been with this organization for almost half my life, so I’d like to see Amity Park be able to get to know who we  _ really _ are, know what we  _ actually _ stand for.”

“And what’s that?” Danny asked.

“Peacekeeping between the pre-death and post-death factions of life, and the scientific investigation and application of ectoplasmic properties.”

“So, cutting ghosts up to find out how they work.”

M shook her head. “Like clean energy and safety equipment. How the shluffed radiation from the ghost zone can impact the pre-death world with acute or chronic exposure.”

“Shluffed?” Danny asked.

“Healthy non-sentient ectoplasm that is passively shed due to extreme excess,” M said.

“Then why all the guns?”

“What?” M asked.

“Why do the GiW have so many guns and weapons if you’re supposedly interested in ‘clean energy’ and ‘shed excess’? Why would you develop ways to aggressively harvest ectoplasm from sentient beings if you were only interested in the passively dropped, non-living stuff?”

“May I suggest that Ex-Agents O and K had resources that were largely outsourced,” M said. “When I’m in the field, eighty percent of my standard equipment is communication or relocation based.” Maybe Amity Park was different, though. Maybe with so many ghost sightings, there were a larger number of hostiles? She’d look into it if (when) they got the Amity Assignment.

“To relocate to a lab?”

“To a haunt that won’t disturb the pre-death life around it, or back to the ghost zone.”

“How do you have access to the ghost zone?”

“There are several areas where natural portals are common. There are two teams responsible for monitoring these various locations, and for keeping track when another is likely to appear.”

Danny nodded. “So.” 

M waited for him. He was processing a lot of new information, and hopefully he would believe some of what M was telling him.

M’s phone buzzed behind her on the chair, and the message came to her watch.

_ You’re not supposed to get in trouble without me  _ _ there to watch your back _

M rolled her eyes. Of course R was awake at four in the morning. She reached back and picked up her phone to respond.

“Are you telling them to come get me?”

“What?” M looked up at Danny’s words.

The kid had pulled back, pulled away, tensed right back up again. M hadn’t even thought about grabbing her phone to answer R’s text, and Danny had responded as though the simple act of grabbing her phone was a direct threat to him. Time and time again, M underestimated his trauma. She would telegraph her movements, if that would help. Maybe it would.

“You. Because I’m awake now.”

“So is my partner, R,” M said. “Shouldn’t be, but is. Has a broken arm and is on bedrest for another week. Just a couple doors down, actually. Somehow figured out I’m here and not visiting. J probably told. Or one of the medical staff, though I don’t think they’d have any reason to check in on.”

“On?” Danny asked.

M nodded. “My partner.”

“Oh.”

“Would you like to meet?” M asked.

“..Your partner?” He was learning.

“Yes.”

“Um. But isn’t..your partner..supposed to be sleeping?”

“So are you,” M said.

“I probably already got more sleep tonight than I usually do,” Danny said.

“So would you like to meet?”

“I. I should say no,” Danny said. “The Guys in White are dangerous. They’ve been trying to catch me since they found out I exist. They revealed my identity to the whole world that one time. They’re the ones who gave FreakShow the Reality Gauntlet. They tried to blow up the Ghost Zone. They put the school in quarantine to look for me. They make fun of dad, even though they constantly rip off his tech. They stepped on Tuck and shoved Sam. They just won’t get  _ out _ of  _ my _ Amity. They almost  _ ended _ Boxy. I should say  _ no _ , I should  _ escape _ .  _ One _ agent doesn’t change anything, and she could still be  _ lying _ . I can’t say yes, I have to say  _ no _ .”

It was like he didn’t realize he was talking outloud. M tuned him out to give him the privacy he thought he had to make his decision.

“Yes.”

“What? M had been expecting Danny to say no, like everything he’d been telling himself indicated he would. If he had somehow convinced himself to say yes? Either he was as bad at self-preservation as the scars littering his torso indicated, or M had done something right (It might have been a bit of both).

“I would like to meet your partner,” Danny said. “Please.”

So he had decided, then.

“Great,” M said. “I’ll send a text to let know.”

Danny nodded.

_ Room 16. Come meet the kid _

_?? _

R was in room 18 and, apparently, out of the loop as to exactly what was going on. It wouldn’t matter, though; it would be simple enough to catch up on what was going on. And the sooner Danny met, the better. R was a good person, on top of being an actually competent GiW field agent. It would be good for Danny to see that M wasn’t the only GiW agent with no interest in vivisecting him.

The door opened.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hopefully the redacted pronouns are not too confusing. Again, idk if they're a real thing but here they are. Next chapter Danny spends a bit of time trying to figure them (the pronouns) out. (If that part is like really stupid or is Problematic, tell me so I can get rid of it)


	6. Danny's Phone Call

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Danny is Not dissected by Agent M's partner and Not zapped by Agent M's phone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Danny is learning redacted pronouns (which I'm still not sure are even a thing) and makes a few mistakes. Not out loud, just in his head, but he does make them. Idk if that's triggering so just a warning incase.  
> If I handle something poorly/offensively, please let me know because I WILL change it.

Danny hadn’t meant to say yes. He had really meant to say no. He had gone through all of the reasons  _ why _ he was going to say no. They were good reasons, and he had a lot of them.

And then he had said  _ yes _ , which was the  _ opposite _ of no.

The door opened.

“M?” a new voice asked. “What did you do to land yourself in...here.” The door was fully open, and the Agent was revealed. “You’re not M.”

“No?” Danny said. “I’m...Danny? He/him.” Because Agent R was doing  _ something _ Danny didn’t understand, and what better way to figure it out than by literally asking.

“R. Redacted.”

“Cool.” Danny made a mental note to look up Redacted Pronouns. If he made it out of here alive.

Agent R’s eyes fell on Agent M sitting in the chair. “L just said you were here, not that you were visiting.”

“L’s around?” Agent M asked. “T come too?”

“Yeah, but they were working. L was supposed to be finding J, but he stopped in to see me.”

So redacted  _ didn’t  _ mean no pronouns  _ at all _ . R had used ‘me’ for self-reference. That was a pronoun. Maybe it meant no one else could use any kind of pronoun for them...for Agent R.

Danny shook his head at his mistake. It would take him some time to get his head all the way around the concept, once he even got it figured out to begin with.

“He say how he knew?” M asked.

“From Agent S.”

“Agent  _ S  _ is here?”

“Yeah. Apparently this is a big deal, but also super hush-hush. Everyone knows something is up, and that you’re involved, but no one really knows what the deal is,” R said.

“You hear that O and K were finally fired?” M asked.

“That would explain what S was doing up and about so late, I guess,” R said. “So. What is the...” R pushed the door shut, stepped further into the room, and trailed off. Then, with much more energy, asked, “Where did you get that? Is it never-melt? It looks like never-melt.”

“You’re the expert,” M said. “You tell me.”

So Agent R could be referred to with direct pronouns like ‘you.’ Okay.

Agent R knelt on the floor and touched the ice around Agent M’s feet and calves. “Wow.”

Danny reached out with one hand and his powers and formed an ice crystal like the ones FrostBite had shown him, the kind that were used for trade in parts of the Infinite Realms.

Agent R’s mouth fell open and eyes went wide (was that right? It didn’t sound  _ wrong _ , but Danny had a C- in English). “Oh that’s so cool. Oh wow. You actually just did that. You just. Just wow. This is real actual ever-freeze, right here in front of me.”

Danny hadn’t liked that the Agent had come in here and paid no attention to him—what was the goal with that—but he wasn’t sure he liked this attention either. Even if it did offer a good distraction.

“It _ is _ ever-freeze, right?” Agent R asked. “It’s at least never-melt, because M would have broken out of anything less, but. Is it...”

Danny nodded. “It’s ever-freeze. And that stuff is never-melt. I mostly aim to not use ever-freeze in fights, and I steer away from never-melt, except for defence.”

“Incredible,” Agent R said. “Who were you defending this time?”

“My. Myself,” Danny said.

“From what?” Agent R asked.

It was a totally legit question. Agent R genuinely wanted to know,  _ really _ didn’t know, how Danny would have viewed M as a threat. But of course, Agent R didn’t know Danny was a ghost yet. And that was the answer to their, um. To  _ the _ question.

“I’m. Part ghost,” Danny said.

“Yeah?” Agent R didn’t see that as an answer. But.. why?

“So I was escaping,” he said.

“From what?” Another genuine question. Agent R didn’t view Agent M as someone who could ever be a threat to a ghost. And if Agent R hadn’t known anything before coming in, and M hadn’t explained since, Well. Didn’t that mean their..  _ the _ reaction was genuine?

Danny grimaced. “A misunderstanding, maybe.”

Agent M smiled. Was it a cruel smile, glad that the deception was taking root? Or was it a friendly smile, relieved that Danny was (maybe totally probably most definitely) kind of starting to trust (and wasn’t that a strange strange thought) her upright and peaceful intentions? Danny didn’t know how to tell the difference, so he tried not to think about it.

“Oh,” Agent R said. “So..why’d you leave it on?”

“It can technically be escaped, since it’s never-melt not ever-freeze,” Danny said. “Um. But because the misunderstanding hasn’t been fully cleared up yet.”

“Oh,” R said. “Good luck with that, then.” A moment’s pause. “Ancients, *gEs,* can I  _ please  _ touch the ever-freeze ice?”

“Um, yes?” Danny wasn’t fully sure why it was so exciting. “You can keep it. Here.” He tossed the ice.

Agent R caught the ice with eyes wide. “Oh, Ancients, I am  _ holding _ a piece of  _ ever-freeze ice _ . Wow. Wow. Okay.” Agent R brought the ice up to eye level, being very careful with the crystal, despite knowing it was ever-freeze. Then Agent R looked up at Danny. “You don’t  _ look _ like you’re from the Far Frozen.”

“R!” Agent M elbowed Agent R. “You can’t just  _ say _ things.”

“I’m  _ not _ from the Far Frozen,” Danny said. “I’m from Amity Park. How do y.” Danny stopped. Try again. “I didn’t think the GiW would have any sort of knowledge about the Infinite Realms.”

Agent R nodded. “The study of Ghost Ice is currently my life’s work. I’ve only been to the Far Frozen half a dozen times, but I wouldn’t forget the name of a whole civilization of friendly ice-cored.”

“Ice-cored?” Danny asked.

“Yeah!” Agent R said. “Um. A ghost can  _ have _ an Ice Core, can be ice- _ cored _ , or can  _ be _ Ice-cores. The Far Frozen are ice- _ cored _ . Which is actually super cool. It makes their ice  _ super _ distinctive. I guess it could be copied, maybe, but it’s a super specific technique. It usually impacts their physical appearances, too, so it makes sense that you’re not actually one of the Far Frozen. Except for the part where this is  _ flawlessly _ done in the FarFrozen style.” Agent R looked up at Danny from the crystal. “That part I don’t understand.”

“Oh,” Danny said. “Um. They’re the ones who taught me how to use my ice powers?”

“Fascinating!” Agent R said. “M, do you know what this means?!”

“I’m sure we both know that I do not,” M said.

“It means I was  _ right _ !” Agent R said. “It means that everything we thought was obvious about ever-freeze ice is  _ wrong _ ! It means that ice-cored ghosts can  _ teach _ their technique to ghosts with ice cores! Who knows if one ghost with an ice core can learn multiple techniques, or if an ice-cored ghost can learn a different one! This  _ singular _ discovery could fuel my research for the next twenty years!”

“Great,” Danny said. “So when does the dissection start?”

Because apparently Danny had no sense of self-preservation  _ what _ soever. He knew it was too late to escape, now. He couldn’t fly and Agent M knew it. And now Agent R had decided that Danny was the Most Valuable Specimen. And yeah, Agent M had said that they wouldn’t be dissecting him, and she’d said that she’d keep saying it until he believed it. And the worst part? Danny had started to believe her. He wanted to believe her. He should’ve just kept his dumb mouth  _ shut _ , and  _ maybe _ they would’ve let him go. But now?

“Right away!” Agent R said. “I’ve just got to sneak into a lab and get started!”

Danny blanched. Agent R wanted to start right away, while Danny still couldn’t even feel half his body. Of  _ course _ Agent R wanted to start right away. If this was their... Agent R’s life’s work, Danny should’ve  _ known _ his time was up. Agent M had put up a good front, but that’s all it was; a front.

“No!” Agent M snapped.

Agent R pulled back a bit. “But. My arm is almost better  _ anyway _ , and the only reason I haven’t been allowed to get back to work is because we’re mobile and the medical team don’t trust you to remove casts unsupervised after last time.”

“Not you,” Agent M said. “Danny. R means the ice crystal. Going to experiment on the ice to see whatever it is R is looking for. Not vivisection. No one is going to vivisect you.”

“What the *E,*” Agent R said. “M, what did you do? Why the  _ zone _ is that a concern?”

“There will be a full investigation into Ex-agent O and K’s illicit practices.”

Agent R sank to the ground beside Agent M’s chair. “They *Eing*  _ vivisected _ someone?”

“This is the first time they’ve even  _ caught _ me.” Danny rolled his eyes. “And they were  _ aiming _ for Skulker. I don’t even know how they got away from Skulker once they got me. Incompetent government stooges. Uh, no offence.”

“Yeah, none taken, what the  _ zone _ ,” Agent R said. “So, but. But they caught you this time.  _ This _ time. Which means they’ve tried  _ before _ . They were actively hunting a  _ kid _ . That’s  _ evil _ .”

Danny shrugged. “Depends how you go about it, I guess. No one really likes the GiW. Which includes... It’s super easy to forget when there’s no white.”

“Well if I’d _known_ I was going to be meeting someone who would just _casually_ offer up concrete evidence that all my theories are correct, I would’ve at least grabbed my suit jacket. But all M said was to ‘come meet the kid,’ which made _no_ sense and in _no way_ indicated how this was going to go. She didn’t even _mention_ the _ice_ , and that’s like, the _coolest thing_ **ever**.”

Danny half smiled. “You’re, um. It’s probably better without the white, honestly. The people of Amity Park don’t really like the GiW. If they see you running around wearing white, you won’t do so great.”

“In Amity... Oh!” Agent R turned to face Agent M. “M, we should go to Amity Park so I can do more research! Please? Just think about it. They’ve got so much ghostly activity, so you won’t be bored or have to sit around waiting or even have to do lab work to pass the time. And. And if O and K got fired, that means their position will be open! It could be a long-term assignment! And! A local  _ literally just told us _ it was a bad idea to wear white all the time. That’s as good an excuse as any, right? And we could probably even live in an apartment with a  _ real kitchen _ . You wanted that, right? So in conclusion, we should apply for the assignment in Amity Park when it opens up, and I’m going to talk to S about setting aside some equipment for my research because I am about to make  _ progress _ . Dear *gE,* I’m so glad I’m awake!”

Agent M smiled at her partner. “I was already planning on talking to you about applying for the Amity Assignment. You can do your research while I work on the investigation.”

“Yeah! And...oh.”

“What?” Agent M asked.

Danny reached out gently—he didn’t want to be caught—and did away with the ice holding Agent M’s feet together. Not all of it, just most of it. He left just enough that she shouldn’t notice he had done anything, just enough to still hold her feet together. The first time she tried moving her legs, she would know. Danny was starting to trust them, but _no_ _way_ did he want _them_ knowing that.

Agent R shook... Agent R’s head shook (Danny nodded at his correction). “We couldn’t just split up like that. You would be unable to respond to any incidents, and I’m  _ definitely  _ not allowed to get fully involved in my research without someone there incase I get  _ too _ absorbed.”

“Right,” Agent M said. “Wouldn’t want a repeat of last time.”

“What happened last time?” Danny asked.

“ _ Someone _ got a little too distracted and missed rendezvous for the ride back. Spent like a month in the Ghost Zone before stumbling on a natural portal to approximately the right time.”

“In my defence, I was only off by three weeks,  _ and _ I was smart enough to wait to call until after past me had missed the rendezvous so that no one but me  _ knew _ that there were two of me in the same dimension, kind of.”

“Wow,” Danny said. “Time travel sure is tricky, huh.”

“Tell me about it,” Agent R said.

“So yeah, not going to let you do that again,” Agent M said.

“We could ask for an intern,” Agent R said.

“An intern?” Agent M asked. “We’re field agents. Interns always just sit and type old reports into computers and wash glassware.”

“But I’ll be doing research, and you’ll be conducting an investigation,” Agent R said. “There’s paperwork for both of those, so we could probably spin it that the intern was to help with the paperwork. Plus, we’ll be stationary. There’s a high school. We could get someone new into the system. Just a kid, part time. Even if they don’t stick around.”

“And then get them to, what. Just hang out and make sure you don’t devolve into a computer?”

“Haha.”

“Have them walk around town with me so that if a problem comes up I can handle it because  _ technically _ I had back-up? You don’t think S will see through it?”

“I think S  _ will _ see through it,” Agent R said. “But S always talks about wanting the interns to do more than paperwork. Besides, when  _ you _ were an intern,  _ you _ were in the field.”

“That!” Agent M said. “That’s different, and you know it.”

“Still,” Agent R said. “Maybe we could ask for Agent L to come with us. Just while T’s on break. He probably wouldn’t mind. And it would be better than leaving him here to work in a lab or on a computer or something.”

“I could take L out and you could work with an intern.”

“Yeah, or vice versa,” Agent R said. “Hey, what about you, Danny? You’ve got the experience to qualify. Think you’d be interested?”

Agent M turned back to look at Danny. The little bit of the ice holding her feet cracked apart when she did. “Oh.”

“Uh,” Danny said. “It is actually  _ way _ too soon to be asking questions like that? But if you do come to Amity, I  _ will _ be keeping tabs on you.”

Agent M smiled. “That’s totally fine. Don’t worry about anything you’re not ready to think about.”

“How about something else,” Danny said. “Something..smaller.”

“Like what?” asked Agent R.

“Sign the paper saying I can go and take me home?”

It was a lot to ask. It was a  _ lot _ to ask. He still wasn’t totally convinced that they weren’t gaslighting him, planning on having him heal fully before they cut him up again.

Oh, Ancients, he’d been so concerned about what a huge thing he’d been asking for that he’d forgotten to say the incentive part! That made it even  _ bigger _ . Oh, *E,* oh.

“Sure!” Agent R said.

“I can introduce you to someone,” Danny blurted.

“What?”

“If. If you take me back and. And let me go. I can introduce you to someone important. I know everyone, basically. It might help you get settled in easier?”

“So you could introduce us to, like, the Mayor?” Agent R asked.

“Um, yeah,” Danny said. “I guess I did say anyone.”

“You don’t like the Mayor?”

“No one who likes the Mayor likes me,” Danny said. “Well. Maybe one person.”

“We’d rather be friendly with you than the mayor,” Agent M said.

“You sure?” Danny asked. “He’s a billionaire.”

“We’re funded by the government,” Agent R said. “Money isn’t ever the problem.”

“Oh.” Money wasn’t the problem. Would that mean they paid their interns?

“Would you introduce us to your sister?” Agent M asked.

“Yeah, sure,” Danny said. “Is the internship paid?”

“Yes,” Agent R said. “Does that make it more appealing?”

Danny blushed. “Not  _ me _ . I just. I think I might know someone who could be interested. If..if you do actually wind up coming to Amity Park and looking for an intern at the local high school.”

“We probably will,” Agent M said. “I haven’t seen S say no to R yet.”

“She has,” Agent R said. “In the past.”

“The _ far _ past,” Agent M said. “Past results of your research means you get anything you need for it.”

“Ghost ice is that important?” Danny asked.

“When I call it my life’s work, I mean it’s what I’ve been working on more or less for the last twenty five years,” Agent R said. “I did research on other things before that. I’m something of an authority when it comes to ghostly knowledge.”

“Oh,” Danny said. “Cool.”

“It’s the weekend,” Agent M said. “What time do you need to be back by to avoid raising suspicion?”

“Well, if I could talk to someone, they could cover for me,” Danny said. “I don’t have my phone with me, though.”

“You can use mine.” Agent M held her phone out to Danny.

Danny took the phone and held his finger above the keypad. Who should he call? Jazz would be able to cover for him best; his parents wouldn’t ever bother to double check something she said. Sam would ask the least questions before agreeing to cover for him, and she’d need the least information to make the excuse work. Plus, she was the best liar of the three of them. But Tucker...

Tucker would be able to hack the GiW. He could check all sorts of things out, if Danny talked fast enough. Tucker could see if Agents O and K had actually been fired (if they hadn’t then this whole thing was a lie), if what Agent M had said about standard GiW equipment was true, where the base Danny was at actually  _ was _ , how far away it was, how long it would take them to come get him if they needed to, what drugs  _ exactly _ they had given him (assuming it was in the computer), the layout of the base, any defences he would have to deal with.

Danny dialed Tucker and raised the phone to the side of his head. At the first ring, he realized: the phone could have been set up to shock ghosts, and here he’d just gone and taken it from her and held it up to his head. It hadn’t hurt him, but it could be remote.

Oh, Clockwork, Agent M had noticed the text from her watch originally. They were linked. If Danny said anything she didn’t like, she could shock him and shut the phone down.

“ _ Hello? _ ”

Danny would have to talk fast.

“It’s Danny, captured by GiW. Unknown location, some kinda drug, can’t fly. Actually competent agents, not in white. Stab wound, broken leg. Transfusion? Not in Amity. Identity gone.”

Danny was breathing hard, and the agents were looking at him, but the phone hadn’t died or zapped him yet.

“ _ Working on it, _ ” Tucker said. “ _ Keep going. More info. Long as you can. _ ”

So Danny kept going.

“I was fighting Skulker, his knife. Stupid *Eing* net, GiW’s got bad aim, pulled knife into me. Twoish hours in back of GiW van. Lost a lot, not anymore, stable. Drug. Painkiller. Can’t feel my legs  _ at all _ , no pain. Transfusion? Something about paperwork, so might be in system? At least six agents on site, probably more.”

“ _ Okay, _ ” Tucker said. “ _ That’s good. I’m in their general system, looking for bases. Keep talking to me. Anything distinctive about the base you’re in? _ ”

“No,” Danny said. “Um. I guess I really didn’t have that much to say. I really figured she would have killed the phone by now.”

Agent M sighed and stood. “Come on, R. Let’s go stand in the hallway so the kid can talk to his friend.”

“How will we know when to come back in?” R asked.

“I dunno,” Agent M said. “It’s too early to do anything, so.” Stood in the doorway, she sighed and turned around. “Look, Danny. One of us will sign the paperwork, and at eight I’ll come get you to take you back to Amity Park, okay? Medical staff gets here around six, and they’ll definitely check on you. Try to get some rest? You’ll heal faster.”

M stepped out of the room, leaving her phone with Danny.

Agent R stepped out after her. “If you’re driving him, what am I doing?”

“Going back to bed, R,” Agent M said. “You’re  _ on _ bedrest.”

The door closed.

“ _ Danny? Danny? Are you still there? _ ”

“Yeah, Tuck,” Danny said. “Yeah, I’m here.”

“ _ You alright? _ ” Tucker asked. “ _ Besides the obvious. _ ”

“Can you check GiW files to see if Agents O and K have been fired?”

“ _ Fired? Of course I can. Why would they be fired? _ ”

“Just. Just let me know.”

“ _ Uhh... M’kay, here. Agent K, terminated. Agent O, terminated. Weird. Why’d they get fired? _ ”

“For. For hurting me, I think?”

“ _ Danny, that doesn’t make sense _ ,” Tucker said. “ _ GiW is  _ always _ trying to hurt you. _ ”

“I know,” Danny said. “I know. But they were getting ready to start the dissection, and she came in and knocked them out and started giving me first aid, and she let my legs go, and she was starting to give me stitches, but I told her that normal stitches wouldn’t work, and she believed me and let me entirely loose to show her how to do stitches that would work, and so I jumped up and I thought I escaped, but.”

“ _ But you didn’t _ ?”

“No, and then I woke up here, and I thought it was the hospital, and I was in human form, so I thought someone had found me like by the side of the road and taken me to a hospital, so when she asked me my name, I  _ told _ her, and she already  _ knew _ what a halfa was? How would they know that? She said I transformed in front of her, which I mean I guess I must have, since they caught Phantom and I woke up Fenton. ”

“ _ Okay, so the GiW knows who you are now. Are we going on another cross-country trip? _ ”

“I don’t think that would solve it this time,” Danny said. “But I don’t know if it  _ needs _ to be solved?”

“ _ How so? _ ” Tucker asked. “ _ You’re four hours away from Amity if we took the GAV _ .”

“She said.” Danny paused. “She said she would let me go. That they would let me go. She said that at eight she would come back and drive me home. And she just  _ left _ her phone here with me.”

“ _ Weird, _ ” Tucker said. “ _ That does mean that if you’re not back by noon, we  _ will _ be coming after you. _ ”

“Thanks,” Danny said. “Um. Can you just. Talk with me for a bit? So I’m not. Alone?”

“ _ Yeah, _ ” Tucker said. “ _ Another couple minutes and I’ll be able to see you, if there’s a camera in the room. _ ”

“I don’t see one,” Danny said. “It might be hidden?”

“ _ Maybe, _ ” Tucker said. “ _ And  _ maybe _ it’s time we revisit my idea to have you carry some sort of tracker. _ ”

“Yeah, you might be right.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And then Tucker and Danny talk until the medical staff come and check in on him. After that the phone dies (Danny worries about that). Then at eight, M comes and gets him. I have not written a scene/chapter to cover this information.


	7. Talking to Jazz

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Danny tells Jazz all about his night out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, idk if a concussion test is a thing, I've just seen it in other fics.

“...Thanks,” Danny said.

“For what?” Agent M asked.

“Everything, I guess?” Danny said. “Stopping O and K, and giving me first aid, and giving me blood, and letting me use your phone, and not being upset when it died, and not telling anyone my identity, and signing the form, and driving me back, and. And letting me go.”

Agent M nodded. “You’re welcome, I guess. But you realize all that stuff is just basic human decency, right?”

“Maybe,” Danny said. “How did you know what my blood type was, anyway?”

“We don’t,” Agent M said. “I’ve got O Negative.”

“Universal Donor,” Danny said. “That’s cool.”

“It’s part of the reason I got picked to be R’s partner.”

“Agent R gets hurt a lot?” Danny asked.

“Absent minded injuries, for the most part,” Agent M said. “But yeah.”

“Um, so.” Danny wrung his hands together. “I can go inside and get my sister?”

Agent M shook her head. “Introduce us once you trust us.” She leaned across the passenger’s seat and pulled the door shut. Then she just...drove away.

Danny was left standing on the sidewalk in front of his house. Alone. Free.

After all of Agent M’s assurances, even after leaving the GiW base and being driven to Amity Park, Danny  _ still _ hadn’t been expecting to be let go. And yet here he was: free.

Danny phased through the front door and gently floated up the stairs to his room. He had to get his phone and let Tucker know he was back, that the GiW had. Had let him go.

That’s great! But confusing

Glad you’re back safe Danny

Yeah.

Danny stepped back out into the hall and knocked on Jazz’s door.

“Come in!”

Danny turned the handle, but the door was locked, so he phased through it.

“Danny!” Jazz stood up from her desk and threw her arms around him.

Danny, overwhelmed by suddenly reaching the definitive end of everything since yesterday afternoon, didn’t slip away. He hugged her back.

“I’m glad you’re safe, little brother.”

“I’m so confused,” Danny said. “And scared.”

A quiet pause before Jazz asked, “Do you want to talk about it?”

“No.” Danny sniffed. It was just a lot and he didn’t understand any of it. He never wanted to have to deal with any of it ever again, but the GiW were the government’s ghost hunters. Amity Park wouldn’t be without them for long, even if Agents O and K had been fired. Plus, both Agent M and Agent R had said they wanted to come to Amity Park. And Agent M had said that Agent R would get anything asked for. It wasn’t a problem that would go away if he ignored it.

“Skulker attacked at lunch time,” Danny said. “No big deal, right? He shows off his new weapons, I avoid them. He attacks, I rip his head off, and we’re done, right?”

“Okay.” Jazz let go of him and pulled him to sit on her bed.

Danny didn’t quite make it onto the bed. He sat on the floor with his back against it (Jazz sat down beside him).

“So he threw a knife at me. Missed. Went right through. And the Guys in White were there. The knife was falling right at them and they didn’t even notice it. I couldn’t let it hit them.”

He couldn’t have. As much as they were  _ awful _ and constantly tried to hurt him, he couldn’t have let them get hurt. Especially since it was his fault. He hadn’t thrown the knife, but if he’d let it stab him, it wouldn’t have fallen at them.

“So I went after the knife, and Skulker went after me, and the guys in white got out a net launcher.”

“Like the one dad’s been tinkering with over breakfasts?”

“Exactly like that,” Danny said. “Only the launch mechanism hasn’t been fixed on theirs.”

“So their aim was off?”

“Yeah,” Danny said. “Their aim was off. Missed Skulker completely.”

“They caught you.”

“Yeah.”

Of course Jazz had put it together. 

“And I caught the knife,” Danny said. “Before the net caught me. And pulled tight.”

Jazz grimaced. “How bad?”

“Not that bad,” Danny said. “If it had just been the stab wound, I would’ve fought to get away, make a scene, something.”

“But you couldn’t with a broken leg.”

“How did you know my leg was...”

The cast. Jazz looked at the cast, then raised her eyebrow at him.

He went to cross his arms, but thought better of it. “Yeah, it broke. Um. I don’t know exactly when. Probably when I hit the ground, but they might have broken it in the van. I don’t know what happened with Skulker. I hope he got away, but. I just don’t know.”

“We’ll figure it out.” Jazz put her hand on Danny’s shoulder. 

“I’ll ask Ember. Later. If they got him, I.”

“It’ll be okay, little brother,” Jazz said. “We can rescue him from any GiW facility.”

“Yeah.” Deep breath. “So I wake up in the back of the van, and time passes and then they drag me out of the van. They  _ don’t _ cushion my landing on the ground, and then they  _ drag _ me along through the dirt and into their base. They drag me down the halls, and I’m just leaving a trail of blood, and ectoplasm, and mud.”

“Mud?”

“From the ground,” Danny said. “When they got me into a lab, they tazed me so that they could strap me to their. Dissection table. Then, um. Then the door burst open and two different agents came in, ones I’d never seen before. And this one Agent. She threw up?”

“Why?”

“I don’t know,” Danny said. “I. I didn’t ask. Um. But Agents O and K said that she was there to help them di.disect me. But she didn’t, she attacked them. She knocked both of them out and threw them on the floor like it was no big deal. And I don’t know what to do. There’s not much I  _ can _ do, and I’ve never seen this agent before and she just took down the two agents I  _ have _ seen, and then she’s got her hand up and she’s reaching for my wrist, but I’m still strapped to the dissection table and I can’t—”

“Danny.”

He jolted in place as he was suddenly pulled out of it.

“It’s over. You’re not there anymore.”

“I know,” Danny said. “I know.”

“It’s okay,” Jazz said. “Just take some deep breaths and remember you’re right here.” Jazz reached out and took Danny’s hand in hers.

Deep breath in, sigh.

Jazz gave his hand a squeeze.

“She was actually talking to me. She said she was going to give me first aid, and she kept saying she wasn’t going to dissect me. Then the other agent brought over a first aid kit, and they actually started helping me, trying to close the stab wound, stop the bleeding. Agent M let me half loose and told me that if I was going to kick, I should kick her because Agent J wasn’t a field agent. Then Agent J let me know exactly what they thought of Agents O and K. Agent M asked me for my name. Not the file number Agents O and K assigned me, my actual name.”

“Did you give it to them?”

“Kind of,” he said. “She just kept insisting they weren’t going to hurt me, that they were just trying to help me, that she wanted my actual name. So that had to mean she thought I  _ had  _ a name, like an  _ actual _ name. I told them they could call me Danny. And like. She just kept saying it again and again, that they weren’t going to dissect me, that I wasn’t going to be dissected, that they were just trying to help me.”

“They did help you,” Jazz said. “Right?”

“Yeah, but I didn’t know that then,” Danny said. “So when she started to try to give me stitches, I convinced her normal stitches wouldn’t work, and that she had to let me loose so I could show her how to do it properly so it would work.”

“But normal stitches do work,” Jazz said. “We use them all the time.”

“When, um.” Danny swallowed. “When mom and dad had me, I would phase through their stitches whenever I could, whenever I had enough energy to go intangible and not revert to human form. If they had to redo the stitches, it meant I got another hour or two before they started again. Of course, after the third time they switched to using ectoline. Um. But then they had to take the stitches out before they could start again, so it was still better. Yeah. Anyhow, the point is that now I will phase through regular stitches without meaning to. I’ve switched to using demi-ecto-thread. It’s like ectoline, but thread, and the ecto bit wears off and then it’s just green thread and it falls out. I mean, I phase it out. Without thinking about it.”

Jazz nodded. “I’ll trade out my thread for demi-ecto-thread before tonight. And I’ll replace it in the first aid kit.”

“I already replaced it in my first aid kit,” Danny said.

“I mean the family kit,” Jazz said. “For the times you tell mom and dad you got caught in a ghost fight.”

Danny frowned. “It doesn’t happen that often.”

“Often enough,” she said. “What if you were too hurt to focus on staying tangible and mom was giving you stitches but they kept falling out? If you’re too hurt to focus—bad enough that you went to mom to help you—you wouldn’t be in a good condition to escape when she figures out why her stitches aren’t stitching.”

“Okay, fine,” Danny said. “Valid point. If I’m hurt enough that I’m letting mom stitch me up, the  _ last _ thing I need is to accidentally phase through the string in front of her. How are you going to convince the parents that switching threads is a good idea?”

Jazz put her free hand on her hip. “You’re always telling us how every bit of protection helps. Well when you need stitches you also need more protection. This way a ghost can’t easily reopen your wounds. It could save your life while you’re out in the field fighting ghosts!” She rolled her eyes and lowered her arm. “It’s about ghosts. It’ll be easy to convince them it’s for protection from ghosts, even if it's actually protecting you from mom and dad.”

“Yeah,” Danny said. “Until dad makes a version that works like the spectre deflector.”

“That’s a separate issue for future Danny to worry about,” Jazz said.

Danny grimaced. “Sure.”

“So you told the agent that normal stitches wouldn’t work,” Jazz said. “Then what?”

“Then she actually let me go,” Danny said. “Not like, let go, but she undid all the straps holding me there.”

“All of them?”

“All of them,” Danny said. “Like a show of good faith, or something. She lets me loose and I stay put, I guess.”

“Did you?”

“No,” Danny said. “I froze the cut, froze her feet together, transformed into my ghost form, jumped off of the table, and apparently I was way worse off than I thought, because I didn’t fly very far.”

“Are you sure she didn’t hit you with something to knock you out?” Jazz asked.

“I am not,” Danny said. “It hadn’t occurred to me until now. But, as it turns out, I have no idea, because all I remember is transforming and jumping into the air.”

“Then what’s the  _ next _ thing you remember?”

“Well I woke up,” Danny said. “I thought I’d escaped successfully. At first I thought I was at Tucker’s, then that you’d taken me to the hospital. Once I woke up a bit more I realized I wasn’t in Amity, so I decided that I was in a hospital somewhere else, that I hadn’t made it all the way back to Amity and someone had found me on the side of the road or something. So I opened my eyes and I thought the woman sitting next to the bed must be the person who found me and brought me to the hospital, right?”

“It would make sense,” Jazz said. “If you’d been at a hospital.”

“Right,” Danny said. “So the first thing I do is panic when I—”

“What?”

“What?”

“Why did you panic?” Jazz asked. “Did you think your identity had been blown? Did you figure out it was actually still GiW headquarters?”

“I couldn’t feel my legs,” Danny said. “I could see them, I could see that one was in a cast, but I couldn’t feel them. So galaxy-brain Danny goes ‘I’m in a hospital, I can’t feel my legs, therefore I am paralyzed’.”

“Oh.”

“So the woman gets me to calm down, tells me it’s a strong as all *hE* painkiller, I’m not paralyzed. Huge relief, right. So now I’m trying to figure out who she is, because she said she was in charge of giving me the next dose of painkiller, or something, but she didn’t  _ look _ like a nurse.”

“And the all-white suit didn’t tip you off?” Jazz asked. “Did you hit your head?”

“Yes, I hit my head,” Danny said. “Three times. Or no, two by this point. But she wasn’t wearing white. I mean, she  _ was _ , but not  _ all  _ white. She was wearing like. White jeans. And when’s the last time you saw a GiW agent wearing jeans, white or otherwise?”

“Never,” Jazz said. “But it’s still white. Should’ve been a clue. How bad were you concussed?”

“Moderately?” Danny said. “But I mean. That was the  _ only _ white she was wearing. She just had like a blue shirt and a jacket.  _ Not _ a white jacket. It was dark. Brown? Maybe? She just looked like a normal person.”

“Undercover?”

“No?” Danny said. “Later she told me that she doesn’t even like white. I don’t know. But she’d been wearing white earlier, when I thought I escaped.”

“It was the  _ same agent  _ and you didn’t recognize her?”

“She was wearing white earlier!” Danny said. “It's not like I saw two identical people and thought they were different. She got changed. And I thought I’d escaped. And when’s the last time you saw a GiW agent who wasn’t wearing all white? Only white?”

“Okay,” Jazz said. “She looked like a different person. I understand.”

“So then she asked me my name.”

“Again?”

“She was doing a concussion test, and _ I  _ thought I was in a hospital. So I told her my legal name. Then that I was fifteen. I figured out that it was a concussion test when she asked for the date. It had gone from afternoon to four am, so I was off by a day."

“Well at least you could pass a standard concussion test,” Jazz said.

“I was definitely still concussed,” Danny said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a really bad ending for a section, but they just stay in Jazz's room and talk.  
> I'm still writing the next section so it may be a bit before it's out, depending on how much I procrastinate my homework.


	8. POV Maddie; Reveal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maddie goes to talk to Danny about his homework (it was so nice of Mr. Lancer to call with a list). She didn't mean to eavesdrop.

Maddie climbed the stairs to her kids’ rooms. It was nearly two o’clock. If Danny was going to have time for his homework before Monday (Mr. Lancer had called with a list of missing assignments), he would have to do some of it this afternoon.

She raised her hand to knock on Danny’s door. If he was already awake then there was no reason for her to trip over the mess on his floor. But before she could knock, she heard voices from Jazz’s room.

“Come on, Danny. You  _ know _ how it’ll go.”

If Danny had already gone to Jazz for help with his homework, then Maddie wouldn’t make him come downstairs to the table. She could just give them the list and let them keep working. Maddie moved over to knock on Jazz’s door.

“Yeah,” Danny said. “And once they find out, I’ll have to  _ leave _ .”

That didn’t sound like homework.

“Danny, mom and dad love you!” Jazz said. “They always will. You can tell them and—”

“I’d be lucky to get kicked out,” Danny said. “You can’t tell them Jazz.  _ Promise me  _ you won’t tell them.”

What could Danny possibly be hiding to think he’d be kicked out? He knew they loved him, right? There wasn’t anything that could change that.

“I won’t tell,” Jazz said. “You know I wouldn’t do that. You don’t have to tell them until you’re ready. But especially after what happened last night, I think you’d be better off telling them sooner rather than later.”

“Tucker can keep a secret,” Danny said.

What secret was Tucker keeping for Danny that Danny thought would get him kicked out?

“It’s not  _ about  _ the secret, little brother. It’s about you being  _ safe _ .”

“Safe?” Danny said. “I’m always safe.”

This might require intervention.

“And that explains the broken leg,” Jazz said.

What? Danny had a broken leg?

“Nothing says ‘I’m totally safe’ like a broken leg does.”

“They won’t see it,” Danny said. “I can wear sweatpants over the cast, and I’ll take it off before anyone gets suspicious.”

Danny had a broken leg, and a cast, and he thought that they wouldn’t notice until his leg was better. As awful as that was (they weren’t that inattentive were they?), Maddie still didn’t know  _ how  _ Danny had broken his leg. She hadn’t even known he was out last night, but he must have been, if Tucker had taken him to the hospital. (That was what they were talking about, right?)

Jazz sighed.

“Look, Jazz,” Danny said. “Thanks for listening to me and letting me sit here with you for an hour, but I really need to go get some sleep before anything else comes up.”

No, he needed to be up to do his homework. There was enough on the list that if he didn’t sit down and work on it straight through until supper, he’d be working on it until curfew on Sunday.

“They love you, Danny,” Jazz said. “More than they hate ghosts.”

Of course they did, but that was a foolish comparison. Jazz and Danny were their children; ghosts were just their job.

“They love Danny Fenton,” Danny said. “Not Danny Phantom.”

True, but—

“They love—”

“Me more than they hate ghosts,” Danny said. “You’ve said it. I heard you. But they hunt Phantom. I just. I can’t risk it, Jazz. I don’t want to die again.”

Die again? Die again. But Danny wasn’t a ghost (he’d said Phantom). He  _ couldn’t _ be a ghost. Surely they would have noticed if their  _ own son _ had died and come back a malevolent entity. 

Danny thought they wouldn’t notice his leg in a cast. Could he have a reason? (Jazz hadn’t argued when he’d said they wouldn’t notice) No, that was stupid. It couldn’t be. They would have noticed. They  _ would _ .

“I understand,” Jazz said.

“You don’t.”

“You don’t have to tell them before you’re ready. I’m just making sure you know that they love you, Fenton or Phantom.”

They hadn’t noticed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have not written a reaction to this new knowledge. She does not confront Danny. She tells Jack (naturally) and they discuss it. Neither one approaches Jazz or Danny about it (They stop hunting Phantom, and they check for a cast, but they never see one).  
> I'm just going to do a time skip and hop to the future, to Monday after this one, because I don't care to write about the rest of the weekend (and have already decided not to write about Jack and Maddie's response), and the Monday lunch scene is the next one I have written.


	9. Danny is Bad at Lying

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Danny approaches Valerie in the cafeteria and ends up saying more than he wanted to (and not getting to his original point at all).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah I don't have an update schedule. I hardly have a LIFE schedule. Here ya are/

“Hey, Valerie?”

“Oh hey, Danny.”

“Mind if I sit?”

“Go ahead.”

Danny set his tray down next to Valerie’s and sat beside her. 

“So I know you hate ghosts,” Danny said.

“Most of them.”

“Most of them?” Danny asked. “Like. Like maybe there are some you don’t hate?”

“I have a truce with Phantom,” she said.

“Right.”

“Uh,” Valerie said. “That is. I mean. Not that I was actively fighting him before! Or anything. Just. Um.”

“Oh, yeah,” Danny said. “Right. Totally.”

Yeah, Danny probably shouldn’t have acknowledged the truce like it was a reminder (he knew they had a truce, he just didn’t realize that meant she maybe didn’t hate him. And clearly she hadn’t meant to mention the truce. He wasn’t supposed to know she was the Huntress).

Danny was not good at lying. No one ever found him out (except Jazz), but no one ever really paid attention. He didn’t normally  _ have _ to be good at lying, he just had to say  _ something _ .

Valerie was far from stupid, and pretty observant, but maybe, just maybe, she wouldn’t see through this lie? (Was it even really a lie if he wasn’t saying anything?)

Valerie sighed. “You know, don’t you.”

“Um.” Danny clasped his hands together to prevent the fidgeting. “Know what?” It probably didn’t help his case that he couldn’t look up at Val, even though he could feel her eyes drilling holes into the side of his head.

She didn’t say anything for a long time. That meant his lie was working, right?

“How long have you known?”

It did not.

“Um. Well. You, uh.” Danny had to think of something, fast. “You remember when Pariah Dark pulled the whole city into the Ghost Zone? Um. And Phantom took your mask off so your dad would stop you from going and dying?”

“So he could take all the glory for himself,” Valerie said. “Yeah.”

“Well. The lab has cameras that record  _ everything _ that happens down there. It helps with mom and dad’s experiments.”

“So your parents know, too?” Valerie asked.

“No. I deleted the footage.”

“Thanks.” She smiled at him.

Danny blushed, resisted ducking his head, and smiled back. “Uh, yeah. No problem.”

Then Valerie frowned. “Wait. Why would you watch the video before your parents did?”

“So that they didn’t see—”

“That’s not a valid explanation unless you already knew  _ and _ knew what happened,” she said. “So maybe if you were standing in the stairs where no one in the lab could see you. Saw it happen in person, then went in and deleted the recording to help me.”

“Yeah,” Danny said.

“But everyone knows you got beat up by ghosts and left outside the ghost shield,” she said. “So you couldn’t have been anywhere near the lab when it happened.”

“Right,” Danny said. “You see. I—”

“I believe you that you deleted the footage to keep my secret safe,” Valerie said. “But you knew before then.”

“Um, yeah.” Because there was no way out of that failed lie than the  _ truth _ truth, that he saw what happened because  _ he _ was the one who took her hood off.

“So how long?” she asked. “Wait, so that means you knew the whole time we were dating?”

“Um, yes?” Danny said.

“We weren’t even friends yet,” Valerie said. “Why would you keep a secret like that for someone you didn’t even like?”

“Well, I—”

“Wait.  _ That’s _ why you were so understanding when we did that flour sack assignment and it came back in horrible condition,” Valerie said. “Because you  _ knew _ why it was like that.”

“Yes,” Danny said.

“So how long did you know?” she asked.

“The whole time,” Danny said. “Um. Since your first appearance as..you know.”

“How?” she asked. “I never told anyone.”

“Well. You were in the park attacking Phantom, and Sam and I were there, um. Trying to figure out where a ghost dog could have come from.”

“It’s Phantom’s dog,” Valerie said. “Wait. You and Sam, in the bushes! You were there to—”

“No!” Danny said. “No. Um. That was all Sam, but. No, wait. That sounds wrong.” He facepalmed. “Okay. I don’t agree with my parents that all ghosts are inherently evil. I’ve seen evidence that they aren’t. There have been helpful ghosts. And I know you hate ghosts, but I’ve been saved by Phantom enough times to be sure. So I thought that maybe if we could catch the ghost puppy people had seen, we could train it, and then we could show my parents that not all ghosts are totally evil.” That was a pretty good lie. At least for Danny. Even if it was basically true.

“Right,” Valerie said. “Okay. And Sam was?”

“She also does not believe all ghosts are evil,” Danny said. “And I tend to, um. Not plan. She had a dog training book for once we actually caught the thing. Not that we really did. It kinda. Took the book and ran away. I think Phantom had the book later, though, so probably the dog still got trained?”

“It  _ is _ slightly less of a destructive nuisance when Phantom’s around to give it orders,” Valerie said. “That doesn’t explain the bush.”

“Right. Well, Sam recognized you.”

“She knows too?” Valerie asked.

“Yeah. Um. So does Tucker.”

“Of course he does. If one of you knows something, all of you know it.”

“So Sam decided that the best way to protect your identity was to pretend we didn’t know it, and she decided that the best way to pretend we didn’t know it would be to pretend we’d been too busy to notice...” Danny’s face and neck were going bright red. “There wasn’t time to have a discussion about it, and she runs laps around me in gym class, so. Personally  _ I _ still think we would’ve been fine to stand there and do  _ nothing _ , since you weren’t  _ expecting _ someone standing there to have guessed who you were.”

“Maybe she just  _ wanted _ to kiss you,” Valerie suggested.

Danny groaned. “Please, don’t. Tucker wouldn’t drop it for  _ weeks _ afterward.”

“Okay, okay,” Valerie said. “Huh.”

“What?” Danny asked.

“Why would Sam decide to keep my secret when she hates me so much?” Valerie asked.

“She doesn’t hate you,” Danny said. “She just. We all support Phantom? And you were hunting him, so. She wasn’t a huge fan of that? But I mean, now that you’ve got a truce with him.”

“So she’d maybe be open to us hanging out more?” Valérie asked. “If I told her about the truce?”

“So long as the truce lasts,” Danny said.

“Then I’ll definitely tell her,” Valerie said. “But you came and sat here for a reason.”

“Right,” Danny said. “So you know how my parents are kind of the top Ectologists in the world?”

“I think the whole town knows that.”

“Right. So they are sometimes somewhat in the know about what’s happening in the ghost-hunting community.”

“Yes...”

“And since I live with them, I—”

The bell rang, end of lunch.

“I can’t be late again, Lancer will kill me.”

They looked at each other, then laughed.

“So we know my excuse,” Valerie said. “What’s yours?”

Danny pushed back from the table and grabbed some of the food off of his tray. “I’m just a really bad student,” Danny said. 

“Well come on, really bad student,” she said. “Let’s go keep Lancer from committing double homicide.”

“Eh, weekend detention’s more likely.”

Valerie shuddered. “Don’t want that.”

“Nope. But, uh. After school?”

“That’s right,” Valerie said. “You’ve started this conversation, don’t think you can get out of it.”

“At the Nasty Burger?”

“Your treat,” she said.

Danny grinned. “Sounds good.”


	10. At The Nasty Burger

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Danny finally manages to tell Valerie about this opportunity he's heard of (through totally upstanding and legal means, no need to be suspicious at all).

“ _ Please _ tell me why you invited Valerie to join us at the Nasty Burger,” Tucker said.

“I  _ didn’t, _ ” Danny said. “I told you I had plans after school and  _ you  _ followed me here.”

“We’re saying the same thing Danny.”

“You’re not,” Sam said. “Tucker, Danny’s allowed to have plans without us.”

“Then what are you doing here?” Danny asked.

“I don’t trust her.”

“Seriously?!”

“Hi Danny.” Valerie sat next to him. “Seriously what?”

“Hey, Val,” Danny said. “Um. Well...”

“Seriously is he still hanging out with you,” Sam said. “You dumped him, why are you still around?”

“He asked me to meet him here,” Valerie said. “You’ve already made it clear how much you hate me, and I’ve kept my distance.”

“You’re not keeping your distance right now,” Tucker pointed out.

“Tuck, not helpful,” Danny muttered.

“No, Tucker’s right. This sure doesn’t look like distance to me.”

“Because he  _ asked me _ to meet him here!”

“Speaking of which!” Danny clapped his hands, and everyone actually stopped arguing for a minute to look at him. “Let’s go order before we forget.”

“Forget?” Valerie stood up. “You think you can go to Nasty Burger and  _ forget _ to order?”

“He’s done it before,” Tucker said. “Sam, let me out.”

“Come on.” Danny pulled Valerie away from the table, toward the counter before Sam let Tucker out of the booth.

“We’re not going to wait for them?” she asked.

“I didn’t ask them to come,” Danny said. “I’m just trying to tell you about an opportunity I heard about ahead of time, but they’re making it so  _ difficult _ .”

“Opportunity?” Valerie asked. “Like how?”

“Right,” Danny said. “Um. So I  _ may  _ have found out before anyone else—and you can’t ask me how!”

“I won’t,” she said.

“That the GiW agents that are usually in town are being replaced by a much cooler team, and that they might maybe be looking for an intern from the local high school.”

“Much cooler how?” Valerie asked. “Wait, intern? Like, you think I should try to get the position?”

“You know more about ghosts than most of our classmates,” Danny said. “They won’t find anyone better for it than you.”

“What about you?” she asked.

“I, um. I’m not qualified for the position?”

“How are you not qualified?” Valerie asked. “Oh, wait. Is it true? You really are afraid of ghosts?”

“Uh, I’m not qualified because I’m  _ dis _ qualified,” Danny said. “I kind of... And I’m not sure how secret this is supposed to be, but. I’m the one that turned in information proving that the agents who were here before were doing some  _ very _ illegal things? So the new team is going to have to do an investigation into that first thing, and it would be a conflict of interests for me to get involved in that anymore. Um. But I really think they’d be lucky to have you, um, and it’s a paid position, so you could maybe do something you enjoy more than Nasty Burger?”

“ _ Anything _ ’s better than working at Nasty Burger,” Valerie said. “No offence, Kyle.”

“None taken,” Kyle (the cashier) said. “With any luck I’ll be giving my notice after spring break.”

Tucker pushed past Danny and Valerie to the counter. “I’ll have one Nasty Burger with fries and a large pop.”

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have included Kyle Weston. (I think that's the right name, I'm not totally sure?) The fannon character who's the older brother (I think) of the fannon character Wes Weston. He works at the Nasty Burger. I have no further plans for him, but Valerie also works there. She's not going to insult her coworkers (mostly).
> 
> After this one there's going to be a significant time skip, just because I don't feel like writing the stuff in between (it's also not really relevant).


	11. Finding an Intern

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> M meets several interesting people during her visit to the local high school.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mr. Lancer and Wes Weston both speak a couple times, but I'm not putting them in the characters' tags (yet?).

Agent M was fully aware that there were multiple students paying attention to her. Most of them weren’t very subtle. A few of them weren’t trying to be subtle, glaring at her with clear hostility (Danny hadn’t been joking when he’d said wearing white wouldn’t do them any favours). Some were actually trying (and failing) to discreetly keep an eye on her. A few kids were watching with unmasked (or poorly masked) confusion, not knowing what a GiW agent would be doing in the cafeteria.

Danny was pointedly ignoring her. He didn’t turn his back toward her (not for a second), but not once did he actually lay his eyes on her directly.

And that still wasn’t even the weirdest response.

This one kid with orange hair was looking at her with  _ the most suspicion _ she’d  _ ever _ seen from a teenager. That in itself wouldn’t be too weird. But he also kept looking at Danny, looking at the way Danny was refusing to look at Agent M. The kid didn’t make it to a table to set his food down before approaching her.

“Yes?” Agent M asked.

“What the *E* are you doing here?” he asked.

Ah. Straight to the point. That was nice. Maybe this was the kid Danny had said he would tell about the internship ahead of time? But no, then the kid would know what was up.

Even if this wasn’t that kid, he had been to-the-point. And one blunt turn deserves another.

“I’m looking for an intern.”

“Really?” the kid said. “You’re just looking for a nice normal human intern? Not a ghost?”

Out the corner of her eye, Agent M saw Danny facepalm. So this  _ was _ the kid.  _ And _ he knew Danny’s secret.

“Excuse me, ma’am?” Another voice. From a student who had only just entered the cafeteria. Meaning Agent M hadn’t had a chance to analyze them.

“Yes?” she turned to look.

“You can ignore Wes,” the girl said. “He’s just the local conspiracy theorist. My name is Valerie Gray. I’m the third most qualified individual for this position, and here’s all the reasons you’re going to hire me.” She held out a file folder.

Oh, Agent M liked this kid.

“What?” the orange-haired kid (Wes) said. “You can’t just—”

“If you’re the third most qualified, why should I hire you?” Agent M asked. “Wouldn’t one of the other two would be the better candidates.”

“You won’t be receiving applications from them,” Valerie said. “I’m the only  _ real _ option.”

Agent M raised an eyebrow as she opened the file. “Tell me, then, Ms. Valerie Gray. To whom do I owe your recommendation?”

“Beg your pardon?”

“How did you know to compile a file like this one? What tipped you off?” Agent M asked. (She was pretty sure now that  _ this _ was the one Danny had meant. Whatever that Wes kid knew.) “Why did you anticipate my arrival?”

“It was easy enough to notice when Agents O and K disappeared,” Valerie Gray said. “And it’s easy enough to figure out that the government isn’t going to let somewhere like Amity Park go long without having GiW agents around. And since you didn’t roll in and announce yourselves like the last guys did, obviously you care more about making good first impressions. Which, I might add, you won’t manage. Not without my help.”

“And why  _ your _ help?” Agent M closed the file. She would read it all later, but she’d seen enough now to know that Ms. Gray was more than interested in the position, and passionate enough to stick with it (even when she ended up doing more paperwork than not).

“Look around,” Ms. Gray said. “Does it look like anyone else is going to help you? The response will be the same from adults and from law enforcement. The GiW is universally hated in Amity Park. I am  _ the _ option.”

She had a point.

“Get out your phone,” Agent M said.

Valerie Gray pulled her phone out of her pocket.

Agent M dropped the application form to her and stood. “Stick around after school, if you’re still interested.” She walked out of the cafeteria and headed back to the office. She’d have to thank Vice Principal Lancer for letting her in for the lunch period. (And let them know that she was leaving campus. She’d checked in, she had to check out.)

She took the call on her earpiece.

“ _ How’s it going? Say hi to Danny for me? _ ”

“Not a good plan, R,” Agent M said. “But yeah, it went well. I think we’ve got our girl. You’re going to love her.”

“ _ The one Danny suggested? _ ” R asked.

“No way to know for sure, but I’d bet yes. She gave me a whole file folder of ‘reasons we’re going to hire her.’ Skimmed the table of contents; looks promising.”

“ _ But who would have something like that ready if they hadn’t been told ahead of time _ ,” R said. “ _ Gotcha. _ ”

“Soon as I check out, I’m coming to the apartment. Don’t burn it down till I get to see it, okay?”

“ _ No promises, _ ” R said. “ _ I’m unpacking the kitchen. _ ”

“Science equipment does not go in the kitchen. Do not put science equipment in the kitchen.”

A silent pause.

“R, did you unload your science equipment in the kitchen?”

“ _ It won’t be there when you get back. Did you want to go grocery shopping today or tomorrow? _ ”

“Better make it tomorrow,” M said. “Get take out tonight.”

“ _ Right. _ ” The call ended (R was never going to get the hang of phone calls, not really).

“Mr. Lancer?” Agent M stuck her head in the door.

“Yes, Ms. M?” The man at the desk looked up from his grading.

“I’ll be going now. Thank you for allowing me access,” she said.

“I actually had a question for you first, Ms. M.” He sat back in his chair. “You requested access to the cafeteria, and yet my security system indicates that you didn’t try to touch anything you shouldn’t have. Why?”

“The two agents you used to deal with have been fired for violent disorderly conduct,” M said. “That may explain a few things.”

“Several, actually,” Vice Principal Lancer said. “I look forward to working with the new and improved GiW, Ms. M. See that you don’t disappoint.”

“And I look forward to working with you.” She backed out of there, and headed out of the school. She could finally go see the apartment.


	12. I Know You Know (short)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Directly after Agent M leaves the cafeteria.

“So?” Danny asked.

“She dropped me this application form and she told me to hang around after school,” Valerie said. “I think that’s good.”

“Of  _ course _ it’s good,” Sam said. “All you told her was the truth. You really are their only option, both for the internship and for making a half-decent impression on the city.”

“You’re friendly today,” Valerie said.

“Don’t get used to it,” Sam said. “It comes from the relief that a GiW agent left without throwing down.”

“Really?” Valerie asked. “That’s a concern?”

“Hey, if they start something, I’m not above finishing it,” Sam said. “I can and will. And I know you can take care of yourself too, eighth degree blackbelt and all. But don’t let them get the drop on you. Just because they’re better than the last guys doesn’t mean they’re halfways decent.”

“If I didn’t know better, I’d say you cared about my safety,” Valerie said. “I’m a ninth degree black belt now.”

“Congratulations,” Sam said. “You’ve still only met one of them, and you know the GiW doesn’t work alone.”

“I can take care of myself,” Valerie said. “I know that you know why.”

Sam froze a moment before frowning, then frowning at Danny.

“Okay, so, I didn’t  _ mean _ to tell her that you’d figured out her identity that time in the park, but she’s really smart, and you  _ know _ I can’t lie to save my life, so. Not that I would’ve tried to lie, especially once she’d  _ clearly  _ figured it out.”

“Okay,” Sam said. “So now we know you know we know. Big deal. Doesn’t change anything.”

“Of course not,” Valerie said. “I’ve got a truce with Phantom.”

“Uh huh,” Sam said. “You let me know when it’s an alliance.”

“I will.”

“Good.”

“Good.”

All things considered, Danny thought that had gone pretty well.

And it was great that Agent M had basically confirmed that Valerie would be their intern. Even if Valerie did end up stuck doing boring investigations and tedious paperwork. It would still be better than customer service. (Valerie had said so herself when Danny had explained that it wasn’t a ghost-fighting internship, it was still mostly an internship-internship.)

So all-in-all, a pretty good day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Should I write a short segment that has Wes reacting? idk  
> If not, I'll jump to after school.


	13. Not The Reaction I Was Going For

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Valerie waits after school for the GiW agent, just like she was told to. Danny gets out of detention before Agent M gets to the school.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please note that I know nothing about American public high school. I went to a private school in Canada, so I have no point of reference really (And since I wrote this for myself I didn't bother researching it). So idk if "double detention" is a thing, or how long detention is supposed to be (my school didn't use detentions), or if "weekend detention" is a thing (that one's mentioned in an earlier chapter. I saw it in the show Three Below, though, so maybe it's real? As horrific as that is).  
> Enjoy anyhow?

The form submitted itself once she was done filling it out. Then all Valerie had to do was wait.

She didn’t have detention today, and she’d given her notice at Nasty Burger a little over a week ago. Four and a half more shifts left (not tonight, not on a Thursday). Her dad had been concerned, Why would she quit her job? But Valerie trusted Danny, and she’d told her dad that she had something else lined up, she just couldn’t tell him about it yet because it was a secret.

Tonight (if everything went well), she could finally tell her dad that she had a job that she liked (hopefully) and that would let her build toward the future (an internship—any internship—opened more pathways than working at the Nasty Burger did). Plus, it was working for the government, technically. That looked good on any resume or application.

But that was only if things went well, if she actually got the job (internship). And she wouldn’t know that until after school.

Valerie didn’t have detention today, but she was still there when (first) detention let out. Everyone filed past her where she had her homework set up to wait for the GiW Agent to show up.

An hour later, double detention let out. Danny came out the front doors of the school. (Big surprise)

“You really weren’t joking about being a really bad student,” Valerie said.

“Unfortunately, no,” Danny said. “I think I’m going to drive Mr. Lancer to an early retirement.”

“I think that’s probably the ghosts’ fault, not yours,” Valerie said.

“Yeah, maybe,” Danny said. “So what are you doing here, anyway? School was out like, hours ago.”

“Two hours,” Valerie said. “Yeah. The GiW Agent from the cafeteria told me to wait here after school if I was actually interested in the position. And I am, so I’m here. But I’m beginning to think maybe they’re not interested in me.”

Danny did a fake gasp. “How could you  _ say _ that?”

“What?”

“The mere  _ idea _ that  _ I _ would be capable of giving you a  _ bad suggestion _ ? Why, how could you even  _ think _ that  _ I _ , Danny Fenton, would  _ ever _ —”

Valerie tackled Danny to the ground.

It was suddenly so obvious. So obvious. (How had she never seen this before?)

“Um,” Danny said. “So, that’s not the reaction I was going for.”

Valerie put her knee on Danny’s neck.

“Val,” he choked out. “What are—”

She pressed down harder and he had to stop. She needed time to think.

Danny never said his own name. Why would he? He was the son of the town’s ghost hunters, he was a Fenton. People knew who he was, recognized him (knew to avoid him, in some cases). He didn’t ever need to identify himself or introduce himself. So he never said his name. Other people said it for him.

Dash did (Fentonio, Fentina, Fenturd), often, but only his last name, and he mangled it enough that it didn’t  _ sound _ like Danny’s name.

Jazz did. She never said his last name, only his first. (Danny. Danny! Danny? Danny...) She said it a lot, actually. She was always getting after him, or checking up on him, or encouraging him. So there was always an intent behind it, if that made sense. She said it in a way that meant she cared. It wasn’t ever  _ just _ his name.

Mr. Lancer did. (That’s a detention, Mr. Fenton. See me after class, Mr. Fenton.) But no one else called Danny “Mr. Fenton.”

Sam and Tucker did. Probably. They would have to, being his friends. They didn’t really like Valerie, though, so she didn’t hang around them a lot. She didn’t hear them say it much (Come on, Danny. You can’t be serious, Danny!), but when she did, it was as an addendum, something they tagged on at the end. An afterthought, not really a  _ name _ .

Valerie did. (Hey Danny! Hi Danny!) Not a lot, mind you. When they hung out together, it was usually alone, just the two of them. No need to clarify who she was talking to. And it wasn’t like she talked about Danny with other people. Other people didn’t talk to her.

So other people said his name. Valerie didn’t think she’d ever heard him say it himself. And that made sense. People (humans) didn’t go around just saying their full names out loud.

But know who did?

Ghosts.

Sure, Technus was the worst (“I am Technus, Master of All Things Electronic and Beeping!”), but that didn’t mean it wasn’t common. (“I am the Box Ghost!” “Ember! You will remEmber my name!” “Tremble in fear before Skulker, Ghost Zone’s Greatest Hunter!”) Even Phantom did it, especially back when people had been calling him ghost boy or Inviso-Bill. (“The name’s Phantom. Danny Phantom.”)

(“I, Danny Fenton.”)

They were basically the same name, and yet it had taken  _ this long _ , it had taken Danny actually saying his own name out loud, for her to put them together. Danny didn’t know her secret identity because Sam had recognized her in the park. Danny knew her secret identity (and had kept it) because he’d been there, he’d been the one she’d been chasing. (Valerie couldn’t believe a fake-out make-out was the only reason she hadn’t caught Phantom back on day one.)(Valerie had kissed Danny. Had kissed..Phantom?)

Danny was pushing at her knee. More urgently now, but still nowhere near as hard as Valerie knew he could. His face was turning red, and he wasn’t using force to escape (of course not, this was  _ Danny _ ) _. _

(“I said if you helped me that I’d give myself up as your prisoner, so here.” “We need to work together if we want to escape.”)

(What would it take for Phantom to actually hurt her? Was Danny even capable of it?)

So if Danny wasn’t really fighting back, and if he already knew  _ her _ secret and they’d had a civil conversation about  _ that _ , then maybe...

Valerie got off of him and helped him up.

Danny took a deep breath as soon as her knee was gone. After a moment to get his breath back, to let his face stop being red, Danny sat up. “What the  _ *E,* _ Val?” He pushed himself to his feet.

“ _ Me _ what the *E*?” She shoved him. “ _ You _ what the *E,* Danny! You’re Phantom!”

“What?” Danny stumbled but didn’t fall. “You just jumped me, and now you’re making baseless accusations? Once again, Valerie. What the *E.*”

For someone who ‘couldn’t lie to save his life,’ he was doing pretty good. Only it was too late to lie; Valerie had already figured it out. (How has she never seen it before?)

“Don’t lie to me, Danny,” Valerie said. “Not anymore.”

“Valerie, listen to yourself,” Danny said. “You sound like Wes. You sound crazy.”

(Wes...knew? Wes had figured it out before Valerie had?)

“You’re just like Danielle and Mr. Masters.”

Danny’s hand was over her mouth. “Look, Valerie. However you found out, you  _ cannot _ let Vlad know that you know. Okay? He will  _ kill _ you if he knows that you know. So you  _ cannot _ let him find out.”

Valerie grabbed Danny’s wrist and pulled his hand away from her face. “You’re not denying it anymore?”

“At the cost of your life?” he asked. “I’d rather you actively try to kill me than get you killed by Vlad.”

“Why?” she asked.

“What do you mean, why?” Danny asked. “Because you’re my friend. I don’t want you to get hurt. I _ know _ that Vlad isn’t above murder. The more people I have to protect from Vlad’s active murder attempts, the more likely it is I’ll miss something and he’ll succeed and the world will end.”

That was

Valerie said. “The whole world?”

“Um,” Danny said. “So. Would you kill me right now if I told you there used to be an alternate timeline where a whole bunch of people I care about died and I went insane and Vlad half murdered me and turned me evil and that just left insane evil ghost me who destroyed like everything except you saved Amity Park using my parents’ technology and it worked for ten years until I developed a new power that was strong enough to destroy the ghost shield keeping me out, only then the closest thing there is to a god intervened and took me to the future in that timeline which made the insane evil ghost me come back to  _ this _ time which no one even realized it wasn’t actually me except for Jazz, who sent a message into the future that found me and let me get back to real time and I had to fight the evil me and ended up developing the power he used to destroy everything so I did manage to defeat him and capture him in a thermos but I was too slow and I couldn’t stop the explosion so they all still died, but then the basically a god guy took me back in time in this timeline to before the whole issue even started so no one but him and me and a few thousand observant ghosts really remembered anything that happened and technically that insane evil ghost version of me still exists even though that whole timeline is gone but he’s locked up in a thermos in a dungeon in a tower that only a couple people can get into, being me and the almost a god guy and the few thousand observants but like they can’t get in and let him out because they can only get into the foyer because technically he works for them only they’re useless and they just want me destroyed all the time which is super annoying.”

Valerie took a step backward. That was a lot. That was a lot, and Danny wouldn’t lie to her, couldn’t lie to save his life (he was dead?), so it had to be true. But Danny? Destroy the world? Even if he had (would? would have?), how could anyone want to hurt him?

“Um. Sorry.” Danny also took a step away from her and adjusted his backpack straps. “I’ll just. Go away now forever. Um. Bye.”

He jumped into the air and a ring of light spread around him and left Danny Phantom in Danny Fenton’s place (how had she never seen it before?), and he flew away.

Valerie shoved all of her homework into her backpack, scrawled a note, and tossed it (and a knife, her new suit was so cool) at the wooden door frame. It stuck in, and then she was up on her board, flying after Danny (she didn’t worry about hiding her face until she was already in the air after him).

Valerie really, really, really wanted that internship. The GiW agent had told her to wait at the school. (She had already quit her other job) If she left, they would just find someone else to do it (Wes? He’d been the only other student to talk to the agent in the cafeteria).

But Danny was her friend (enemy? nemesis? they had a truce) and he was flying away (I’ll just go away now forever) and she couldn’t let him. She  _ wouldn’t let him _ (fly away forever).

She flew faster, and Danny flew faster. She could pull out a net launcher, try to catch him (but all of her gear would hurt him. Even the nets would zap him some, and she didn’t want to hurt him, didn’t want to scare him) (she was chasing after him and he was flying away like his life depended on it).

Valerie lowered her board to the ground and called up her phone (Tucker. Call Tucker).

“ _ Hello? _ ” Tucker said. “ _ Who is this? _ ”

“It’s Valerie,” she said. “I need you to put me through to Danny in a way that he can’t hang up on.”

“ _ What? Val, that doesn’t even make sense. Aren’t you supposed to be doing that internship thing right now? _ ”

“Tucker, please,” Valerie said. “This is important.”

“ _ Important like how? _ ”

“Important like  _ time-sensitive-if-you-ever-want-to-see-Danny-again- you-have-to-help-me _ !” she said.

“ _ Okay, okay, _ ” Tucker said. “ _ Just give me a second. Not like I’m in the middle of something or anything _ .”

A pause. A horribly long pause (twenty seconds? But Danny was flying away (forever)). Forever.

“ _ There _ ,” Tucker said. “ _ He’ll pick up, and he’ll have to talk to you. Or at least listen. But it won’t last forever. _ ”

Tucker hung up, and there was a horrible ringing, ringing, ringing (he wouldn’t have to hang up if he didn’t pick up in the first place).

“ _ Jazz where are you? I need you. I was at the school and Valerie— _ ”

“Danny.”

Silence.

“Danny, please. It’s me, it’s Valerie.”

Silence.

“Danny, I don’t hate you,” she said.

“ _ Why won’t it  _ hang up _ , what did you do, how did you call from Jazz’s number, why can’t I  _ hang up _? _ ”

“I asked Tucker for help,” Valerie said. “Because I—”

“ _ And he agreed?! _ ” Danny said.

“Yes!” Valerie said. “Because he knows I’m your friend and that I care about you. And you said you were going to go and fly away forever and you can’t  _ do that _ , Danny. You don’t  _ need to _ .  _ Please _ come back.”

“ _ So you can shoot at me? _ ” He asked.

“I’m not going to shoot at you, Danny,” Valerie said. “In fact, as of right now, I’m officially upgrading our truce to an alliance.”

“ _ Why? _ ”

“Look. I have questions, but I don’t have suspicions. Now that I know Phantom is you, I know there’s no alterior motive or anything. You are my friend and I trust you.”

“ _ Yeah right, _ ” Danny said. “ _ After a secret like that? _ ”

“I understand why you didn’t tell anyone,” Valerie said. “And. I understand why you specifically didn’t tell me. I’m not mad at you for protecting yourself or something. I’m worried that you’re about to not take care of yourself because you’re jumping to assumptions.”

“ _ I don’t understand, _ ” he said.

Valerie sighed. “Meet me at the Nasty Burger? My treat this time. You can bring anything you need to make you feel comfortable. I just want to talk to my friend.”

Danny was quiet.

“Please, Danny,” Valerie said. “What can I do to get you to trust me?”

Quiet again, and Valerie thought he might never answer.

“ _ Saturday, _ ” Danny said.

“What?” That wasn’t an action, that was a day.

“ _ Don’t. Don’t talk to me until Saturday, _ ” Danny said. “ _ If you want me to believe you, then  _ promise  _ me that you’ll leave me alone until Saturday. _ ”

“I promise,” Valerie said. 

“ _ Actually? _ ”

“Yes,” Valerie said. “Actually. Just make sure you take care of yourself until then, okay?”

“ _ Um. Good luck with the internshi— _ “

The call dropped. Apparently her time was up. That was okay, though, because she had a plan. She would leave him alone until Saturday, and then they could talk. It wasn’t much of a plan, but it was all she was going to get, and it meant Danny wasn’t beyond her reach.

She had a lot of thinking to do before Saturday came.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So how I figure it is that Danny Phantom used to have to say his own name a lot to get people to stop calling him Inviso-Bill, so when Danny goes and says "Danny Fenton" it sounds close enough that Valerie can connect the dots. She has more dots than other people do, after all, what with knowing about Danielle and Vlad already.
> 
> [Also. I have just realized that my method of representing swears is non-standard? Uh, but that's what most of the * are for so. Sorry.]


	14. POV M, After School

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Agent M is at the school to pick up the new intern.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [I updated the previous chapter (13) to include some more of Valerie's thought process. I may have gone overboard.]  
> I'm meant to be studying for a biochem midterm that I cannot afford to fail, so here you go.

M had wanted to be at the school an hour ago, by the time regular detention let out. It would be interesting to see if the girl who had filled out that application form would wait around for an hour. But then R had gotten pinned by the couch, and M had needed to get it off so R could move. She still didn’t understand quite how R had managed it, but it was solved now. And now it was two hours after when school let out. So M wasn’t really expecting Ms. Gray to still be there.

So imagine her surprise (and delight) to find Ms. Gray, still sitting at the entrance to the school, waiting. Working on homework, maybe?

And then Danny Fenton exited the building. Another one of those double detentions on his record, probably. M had looked it up, just because, and it hadn’t surprised her, really. If he was constantly running off to fight ghosts, of course he would miss class or be late or not have time to do homework.

They got into a conversation. M got closer to listen.

“...that _I_ , Danny Fenton, would _ever_ —“

M wasn’t expecting Ms. Gray to suddenly lunge at Danny and pin him to the ground. She wasn’t expecting her to press her knee into Danny’s throat and cut off his questions. M had read in the file that Ms. Gray was an eighth degree blackbelt, but that didn’t translate into attacking her friends.

Danny wasn’t fighting back, though. Not really. He was pushing at her knee, as though trying to get her off. He would be fine, though, probably (M got closer anyway). Ms. Gray knew how to keep him from speaking without keeping him from breathing, and Danny didn’t need to breathe quite as often as everyone else, either (and if he got desperate, he could make part of his lungs intangible, take air in through there). So M approached but did not reveal herself and did not intervene. She would if she thought Danny needed help. As much as she liked Ms. Gray and was looking forward to working with her, M was already committed to helping Danny, even if he wasn’t totally accepting of that yet.

Ms. Gray let Danny up. He took a minute to get his breath back (did he not know he could breathe through his lungs?), then asked, “What the _*E,*_ Val?”

“ _Me_ what the *E*?” Ms. Gray shoved Danny back a step. “ _You_ what the *E,* Danny! You’re Phantom!”

Oh, she had figured it out. That was impressive for someone who didn’t know about halfas. Had she realized it just from hearing him say his name? (They were rather similar. If halfas were at all common knowledge, it would be remarkable he still had a secret identity.)

“What?” Danny said. “You just jumped me, and now you’re making baseless accusations? Once again, Valerie. What the *E.*”

He really wasn’t a good liar. Tell his parents he had been in a car accident? Okay, sure, and then what? What happened when he was fully healed the next week? Keep the cast on?

“Don’t lie to me, Danny,” Ms. Gray said. “Not anymore.”

“Valerie, listen to yourself,” Danny said. “You sound like Wes. You sound crazy.”

Wes. That was the orange-haired kid that had approached M in the cafeteria to ask “what the *E* she was doing there,” and then had said things that suggested he knew Danny’s identity. So that kid _did_ know, and was trying to tell people, but no one believed him. And again, why should they, if halfas weren’t common knowledge.

“You’re just like Danielle and Mr. Masters.”

_That_ got a response from Danny. He leapt forward, not really touching the ground, and clamped his hand down over Ms. Gray’s mouth. “Look, Valerie,” he said. “However you found out, you _cannot_ let Vlad know that you know. Okay?”

So Ms. Gray _did_ know about the existence of halfas, and knew two others. There were that many halfas in Amity Park?

Vlad Masters. The name was familiar, but she didn’t know it. Maybe R would, or maybe she could take a look at the GiW database (or even just the internet) to figure it out. It would be nice to be in touch with another halfa. And maybe Ms. Gray would let them get in touch with the Danielle person, too.

“He will _kill_ you if he knows that you know,” Danny continued.

Maybe this Vlad Masters wasn’t someone they wanted to associate with after all. M would still look him up, if only to know who to avoid.

“So you _cannot_ let him find out.”

Ms. Gray pulled Danny’s hand away. If she was able to do it at all, much less that easily, Danny wasn’t trying to keep her from talking, he had just been trying to keep her from continuing in that vein of thought. Vlad Masters was, apparently, a big deal to Danny. Another reason to figure out who he was.

“You’re not denying it anymore?” Ms. Gray asked.

Incredulously, Danny asked, “At the cost of your life? I’d rather you actively try to kill me than get you killed by Vlad.”

“Why?”

It didn’t seem like she was going to be attacking him, though Danny had seemed sure she would. Then again, Danny had been sure that M and R (and J) were going to vivisect him, so maybe he’d just had previous bad experiences with people finding out.

But was she seriously asking why he didn’t want her dead?

“What do you mean, why? Because you’re my friend,” Danny said. “I don’t want you to get hurt. I _know_ Vlad isn’t above murder.”

Oh, that was trauma right there. Who had he lost?

“The more people I have to protect from Vlad’s active murder attempts, the more likely it is I’ll miss something and he’ll succeed and the world will end.”

Attempts. Protect. Meaning that so far, Danny had kept Vlad from killing anyone. At least anyone that he knew or cared about. That was good. M understood how it felt like your whole world was ending when you lost someone. She hated that someone as young as Danny could understand it.

“The whole world?”

And grateful that apparently Ms. Gray could not.

“Um.”

Oh, Ancients, Danny hadn’t meant his world, he had literally meant the world. The whole world. How the Zone would the whole world end if Vlad Masters killed someone he cared about?

“So,” Danny said. “Would you kill me right now if I told you there used to be an alternate timeline where—”

M covered her ears and retreated to the car. She knew that time travel was an ordeal best kept secret, that the timeline was more likely to destabilize if information from the future (or alternate realities) was shared. She did roll the window down a crack to get a mic out. She would record it, let R listen to it. R had enough experience with time travel (accidental and otherwise) to know if it was something they needed to worry about. So she’d record it and ask if it was a problem. Hopefully it wouldn’t be.

Danny just kept talking. Whatever he was telling Ms. Gray about this alternate timeline, she wasn’t liking it, and he didn’t like it. He looked to be in pain, if his steadily growing grimace indicated anything. So it wasn’t a good alternate timeline. It wasn’t anything close to good (of course not, it had started as an explanation for why the whole world literally ended when he lost someone).

After a while, Ms. Gray took a step back, away from Danny. She didn’t say anything, but her eyes were wide. Whatever Danny had told her, obviously it was a lot.

Danny fiddled with his backpack straps a moment, then jumped into the air and flew away. Once he’d cleared the parking lot, he shifted to his ghost form. If he was gone now, M supposed she had better deal with Ms. Gray. That was why she was here, after all.

M looked back at the school door just in time to see Ms. Gray throw a knife (why was she carrying a knife?) at the school door. It fluttered (knives didn’t flutter), and Ms. Gray was suddenly airborne. She had a hoverboard. She was flying through the sky after Danny on a hoverboard. M knew they existed, but she really hadn’t expected a highschooler to pull one out of _nowhere_ and fly off on it.

Ms. Gray was going fast (she would have to be fast to catch Danny). M could only just see it when a red suit covered Ms. Gray (also from seemingly nowhere) and a red helmet (hood? mask?) covered her head. Ms. Gray was the Red Huntress.

Danny probably knew that. That’s why he would have recommended her for the internship, why he’d thought of her when it had been mentioned. That’s why he had thought that Ms. Gray would attack him, why he had said he’d rather that she be actively hunting him (because she already did). And that’s why he’d been so quick to run (fly) away. Because he _knew_ she could chase him, could attack him, could fight him, could hurt him.

But Ms. Gray didn’t tell just anyone that she was the Red Huntress. It wasn’t in her file of all the reasons they should (would) hire her. It was a secret identity, and one that she’d let Danny in on. That had to mean something. That they were friends. And Danny had said so too, that they were friends.

Probably she wasn’t chasing Danny to hurt him, if they were friends.

Not that M could do anything to change anything now that they were in the air. She hadn’t brought any sort of equipment with her, she’d _just_ been there to bring Ms. Gray back to the apartment and introduce her to R (and show her their set up). So she couldn’t catch them.

M stopped the recording and got out of the car. The knife Ms. Gray had thrown was still fluttering, and fluttering still wasn’t something knives did.

It was a note. Ms. Gray had pinned a note there with the knife.

GiW Agent,

Emergency with friend. Had to go. Still interested.

XXX-XXX-XXXX

-V

V. That was nice, she would fit right in.

M pulled the knife and note from the wall and put them in her pocket. She would call (or text, probably text) the number, but not until she’d shown R the recording and asked if it was going to be a problem.

Then they could bring V in for orientation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this chapter copies the last one just from a different POV, but it still does some things.  
> M knows Valerie is the Red Huntress.  
> M has a recording of Danny telling Valerie about the whole Dan thing.  
> We get to see what Valerie wrote on the note she left.  
> Idk how important any of those things are going to be, but I wrote the chapter so you might as well have it. :)


	15. (super short) Stay for Dinner?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Consistent chapter length? Never heard of her. (This whole chapter could've fit in the Chapter Summary.)

“So, Danny. Care to join us for dinner?” R asked.

“...Why?” Danny asked.

“Uh, because it’s supper time?” R said. “We’re ordering take out.”

“Why,” Danny said. “Why would you offer that. For.”

“You spent all day helping us get moved in,” R said. “You moved hundreds of pounds of furniture and equipment up to the seventh floor and helped us get it arranged and set up. You’ve been working for hours. You can’t tell me you’re not hungry. You’ve literally accomplished  _ days  _ worth of work. We would’ve been setting up for a week without you. You  _ must _ be hungry.”

“I mean, I am, but,” Danny said. “Why would you want me here to... I don’t...”

“M!” R turned and called into the other room.

“What?” M called back. She appeared in the doorway.

R made gestures at Danny. “Help. I did something wrong.”

“What went wrong?” M crossed her arms and leaned on the wall.

“I confused him,” R said.

Danny sneered, “What, is she the talking to ghosts expert?”

“The talking to humans expert, actually.” She rolled her eyes. “Danny, thank you so much for your help today. Why don’t you stick around for supper, and we can talk about how this is going to go.”

“Okay,” Danny said.

R sighed. “I’m never gonna figure this out.”

M shook her head. “Don’t worry, I’ll explain this one to you later. For now, Danny. Why don’t you show us the webpage for that specialty restaurant you were talking about.”

“Okay.” Danny pulled out his phone.


	16. (short) Dinner Conversation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> M still wants to hire Danny. Danny just wants to look out for his (?) friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so apparently today you're getting a lot of the shorter segments I've written. This is because I have a midterm tonight that I need to study for.

“Tomorrow I’m going to get the new intern started on the orientation package,” M said.

“Oh,” Danny said. “Um, when? How? Like what’s a part of that?”

“Would you like one?” M asked.

“No,” Danny said. “Just. Just what time. Because I. Because.”

M raised an eyebrow. “The first part of the package is paperwork. I mostly plan to give it to her, give her my number in case she has questions, and then turn her loose. Collect it in a day or two.”

“Okay,” Danny said. “Okay, yeah, that’s okay.”

“We’re not here to hurt anyone,” M said. “We won’t hurt your friend.”

“Well yeah no, but. I mean, of course you wouldn’t. Getting her to join is the GiW’s biggest achievement yet in this timeline and that hasn’t been erased. And she’s a ninth degree blackbelt. You  _ couldn’t _ hurt her. I only know two of those.”

“Two?” M asked.

“Wait,” R said. “But the file said she was an eighth degree blackbelt.”

“She upgraded on Monday,” Danny said. “She’s been on that level for a while, she was just..waiting. To level up. For reasons. But she’s good. Like. I know two ninth degree black belts, and believe me, you do not want to fight them. Not fun. Don’t try it.”

“We won’t,” M said.

“Who’s the other one?”

“Um. Maddie Fenton?” Danny said. “But the point is don’t even bother  _ thinking _ about trying to hurt Valerie, because she can take you down.”

“Right,” M said. “Well, we’ll definitely avoid getting into that kind of situation, right R?”

“Yeah, of course,” R said.

“So,” M said. “I was thinking of giving it to her around five tomorrow. I’ll call her and tell her to meet me—”

“No!” Danny said. “I mean. Uh. Just.”

“Yes?”

“Like, couldn’t you just give it to her right after school?” Danny said. “That way you don’t have to interrupt, um. Well, I guess your schedule isn’t the same as, um. But.”

“Is she busy?” M asked.

“I don’t—”

“We are hiring her,” R said. “We’ve already confirmed it with Agent S. Sent the file through and everything. She has the position.”

“She gave her notice at the Nasty Burger, but she’s still got a few shifts,” Danny said. “She’s working after school tomorrow, and on Saturday and Sunday, and overnight Monday to Tuesday. Then she’ll be done, and her schedule won’t be busy. I just. I know she would prioritize this, because she really wants this internship. It’s going to be great experience for her, and it’ll help her get into any career path she chooses. Just.”

“Just?”

“I don’t trust you,” Danny said. “I refuse to trust you. What if she blows off her last four shifts to make sure she gets the internship, and then you drop her. They won’t take her back if she skips work. She gave her notice a week before you guys even got here. So I just don’t want her losing this opportunity  _ and _ the Nasty Burger as a work option.”

“Well, we’ll be getting set up for a while yet anyhow,” M said. “After all, we’re not just setting up apartments or offices. We’re settling into new lives here, too. It’ll be awhile before we’re ready to have her doing anything for a significant period of time. I had been thinking of having her over to see the apartment and meet R when I collected the paperwork from her on Monday, but we wouldn’t be ready for her really until Wednesday.”

“Thursday,” R said.

“Thursday?” M said. “Why Thursday?”

“I need to see where we are,” R said. “That’ll take a day, probably.”

“Okay, Thursday,” M said. “A week from now. That gives me a whole extra day more than I’d been planning. Unless you need me for it?”

“No,” R said.

“So I get to find a way to fill a Wednesday,” M said. “Shouldn’t be too hard.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, there's like. No descriptions here. Just dialogue in vacuum. Oops.


	17. After Dinner

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> M knows Danny doesn't trust them, but she doesn't mind if he hang around.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I actually did my English homework yesterday, so you can have this today instead. It's not great but here it is!

“But there’s a whole fridge at my house,” Danny said. “You guys are still moving in. What are you going to eat for breakfast?”

“Yes, but see.” M pushed the bag into his arms. “If we have leftovers, we’re more likely to procrastinate grocery shopping because we already have food. And then we won’t do it for a day so we’ll have to order more take out, and then we’ll have  _ more _ leftovers. You see the problem? You’re saving us from a vicious cycle.”

And this food wasn’t highly contaminated. A cursory search had revealed that the Fentons had previously managed to reanimate some of their meals. Terrifying, but it went a fair way in explaining why Danny was too skinny.

“But breakfast,” Danny said. “And this is too much to be accidental leftovers. This is like you were planning on getting food for multiple days.”

“New restaurant,” M said. “Half of it could have been no good.”

“Oh,” Danny said. “I guess that makes sense.”

“Yes.” M pushed Danny out the door. “See you tomorrow.”

The door shut.

Danny leaned forward and stuck the top half of his body through the door. “Why will you see me tomorrow?”

“When I bring Valerie the paperwork tomorrow afternoon at the school.” M put her hands on Danny’s shoulders and gently pushed. “Now go do your homework.”

“Right,” Danny said. “Yeah, okay.” He pulled back and left the apartment again.

M looked to R and raised an eyebrow at the closed door.

R looked down at phone and then back at M. Nodded.

So Danny was still hanging around invisibly, keeping an eye on them. He would have to leave eventually, though. Once he did, they could discuss whether or not there would be time-stream problems, and the apparent secret identity of their new intern. Until then, though.

“S  _ did _ send us the intake package, right?” M asked. “I could pull maybe half of one together from memory, but.”

“No, he sent it,” R said. “Uh. I put it...somewhere.”

“Like, the file?” M asked.

“I saved all the paperwork onto a blank tablet,” R said. “Um. The tablet is somewhere, probably.”

“Right,” M said. “Guess we should find that, then.”

“I’ll check the kitchen,” R said.

“I’ll check the living room.”


	18. (short) Aftermath

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Valerie calls Sam, as per her request in Chapter 12 (earlier that day).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This goes back in time to right after Valerie called Danny and they did that whole conversation. This is part of the aftermath, incase the title didn't give it away.  
> Aftermath: the consequences or aftereffects of a significant unpleasant event.  
> Idk man, titles are whack.  
> The texting is different this time than it was in previous chapters because now there are three of them not two. Enjoy!

“Hello.”

“ _ Hey, Sam. It’s Valerie. _ ”

“Valerie?” Sam sat up. “Why are you calling  _ me _ ?”

“ _ You told me to let you know, and I said I would, _ ” Valerie said. “ _ So I’m calling to let you know that I’ve got an alliance with Phantom now. _ ”

“Oh, oh really?” Sam asked. “Why’s that? Why now?”

“ _ We’ve been working that way for months, _ ” Valerie said. “ _ I was just too scared to admit it. But now we’re there. And besides, he’s gotta have someone to release him from the GiW. I don’t know if you were getting the vibes off of the agent in the cafeteria, but they are seriously better than the last guys. _ ”

“You would risk getting fired to release a  _ ghost _ ?” Sam asked. “You’re supposed to hate ghosts.”

“ _ Yeah, well. Not Phantom. _ ”

“Just because?”

“ _ I have my own reasons, _ ” Valerie said. “ _ Nothing you need to worry about, Manson. _ ”

“So how long is this alliance going to last?” Sam laid back down on her bed. So far this was all good (though unexpected) news.

“ _ Probably forever, _ ” Valerie said. “ _ I seriously doubt Phantom would break it, and I don’t plan to. _ ”

“Why?” Sam asked. “Didn’t you used to blame him for wrecking your life?”

“ _ Yeah... _ ” Valerie said. “ _ But I’m moving past that now _ .”

“Why?”

“ _ I just am, _ ” Valerie said. “ _ Look. You said to tell you when I got an alliance with Phantom. I have an alliance with Phantom. I told you. Bye. _ ” She hung up.

Sam dropped her phone. So, Valerie and Danny had an alliance now. Finally. That would be good for Danny’s mental health. It was  _ not _ healthy to be low-key obsessed with someone who wanted you dead (dead-er, she thought he was a ghost).

Sam grabbed her phone again and opened their group chat.

S: Congratulations Danny

It was a minute before Sam’s phone buzzed with a response, and when it did it was Tucker.

T: Oh *sE* are they dating now?

T: Is that what the important phone call was about?

S: ? idk what you’re talking about

S: Val just called me to tell me about their alliance

S: Danny wouldn’t start dating Val again without telling us

T: Oh *sE*!

T: So that means she was calling him to tell him about the alliance

T: Why would that be time sensitive though?

T: Danny?

T: Hello?

Still nothing from Danny, though he was seeing the messages.

S: Danny you okay?

S: It’s chill if you did start dating her again

D: I don’t want to talk about it

T: Oh we’re not happy

T: Sorry man. She said it was time sensitive or you’d like go  away?

T: Idk

Danny didn’t respond again. So that was...worrying. Though if he didn’t want to talk about it, then he didn’t want to talk about it. Not much Sam could do to help with that until Danny was ready to talk.

Even if he didn’t want to talk about it, he had to be excited to be one step closer to dating Valerie again. An alliance meant she didn’t hate him. The sooner they could get her to actually tolerate Phantom, maybe even enjoy working with him, the sooner they could let her in on Danny’s secret. And really, it wouldn’t be  _ safe _ to date her until she knew. So yay, one step closer to dating Valerie.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a hot minute since I posted another chapter, but hey. Midterms are done and I ate waffles for lunch today so. yes.  
> Idk when I'll get around to updating next.


	19. Jazz's Study Date (short)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jazz's study date is interrupted by a (really weird) phone call.

Jazz had been on a study date when her phone rang. A call from Danny.

“Sorry,” Jazz said. “I have to take this, it’s my brother.”

“He okay?” Vick asked.

“Probably,” Jazz said. “I just have to be sure.”

Vick nodded. “I get that. Family always comes first, right?”

“Right.” Jazz answered the phone. “Hello? Danny?”

“ _Jazz where are you? I need you._ ”

Well, apparently her study date was over; this sounded urgent.

“I’m at the library, Danny,” Jazz said. “Where are you?”

Danny continued. “ _I was at the school and Valerie—_ ”

“ _Danny._ ”

Jazz jumped when another voice came on. But maybe Danny was just near someone while he was calling her.

“What about her?” Jazz asked. “What happened?”

He didn’t answer her.

The other voice spoke again. “ _Danny, please. It’s me, it’s Valerie._ ”

Was this a three way phone call? Jazz pulled the phone away to look at the screen. No, there was no indication that anything was odd about the call. But clearly there was something.

There was the sound of air. Danny was flying? Maybe? It wasn’t too bad, though, so he was using the Fenton Phones.

“ _Danny I don’t hate you_ ,” said that other person, Valerie.

"How did you manage this?" Jazz asked (though she knew they couldn't hear her). "It shouldn't be—”

“Are you okay?” Vick asked.

Jazz shot a smile in Vick’s direction, but didn’t really process the words.

“ _Why won’t it_ hang up _, what did you do, how did you call from Jazz’s number, why can’t I_ hang up _?_ ”

Jazz would like to know that too, please.

“Hello?” Jazz said. “Danny? Are you okay?”

“ _I asked Tucker for help,_ ” Valerie said. “ _Because I—_ ”

“ _And he agreed?!_ ” Clearly he should not have, based off of how upset Danny was. Hadn’t they been doing better recently, though?

“ _Yes! Because he knows I’m your friend and that I care about you._ ” So then yes, they had been doing better, for Tucker to know something like that. “ _And you said you were going to go and fly away forever and you can’t_ do that _, Danny. You don’t_ need to. Please _come back._ ”

Okay, so she was looking out for his best interests. But wait, fly?

“ _So you can shoot at me?_ ”

Valerie had figured it out. Danny had been at the school and Valerie had figured out his identity. Seen him transform, probably. That was how people figured it out.

“ _I’m not going to shoot at you, Danny. In fact, as of right now, I’m officially upgrading our truce to an alliance._ ”

That was good, if true. The truce had been tentative. An alliance with the Red Huntress would really help Danny to

“ _Why?_ ” Danny asked.

But this wasn’t an alliance with the Red Huntress. And this wasn’t Phantom. This was Valerie and Danny, Danny Fenton. That’s why she was offering the alliance. Because it was Danny, and Danny was her friend (and she wouldn’t shoot at her friend).

“ _Look,_ ” Valerie said. “ _I have questions, but I don’t have suspicions. Now that I know Phantom is you, I know there’s no ulterior motive or anything. You are my friend and I trust you._ ”

“ _Yeah right_ ,” Danny said. “ _After a secret like that?_ ”

“ _I understand why you didn’t tell anyone. And. I understand why you specifically didn’t tell me,_ ” Valerie said.

Good. That should be a big relief. And maybe, _maybe_ , Valerie’s response to finding out would help Danny be able to tell their parents. The sooner he told them the sooner they would stop shooting at him (Jazz was sure. She knew her parents well enough to know they loved Danny more than they hated ghosts).

“ _I’m not mad at you for protecting yourself or something,_ ” Valerie continued. “ _I’m worried that you’re about to not take care of yourself because you’re jumping to assumptions._ ”

That was a valid fear.

“ _I don’t understand,_ ” Danny said.

Of course not.

A sigh. “ _Meet me at the Nasty Burger?_ ”

“Jazz? Do you need to go?”

“Vick!” Jazz nearly dropped her phone. “Um. Yeah, sorry. Um. My brother, he just. He’s having girl trouble? And he’s just totally freaking out.” Technically true. “I really have to go help him, because the _last_ thing anyone needs is for one of our parents to try to get involved with helping him.”

“Gotcha,” Vick said. “Um. See you in class tomorrow? Good luck on the quiz.”

“Yeah,” Jazz said. “Um. You too.”

“Thanks.” Vick smiled and left the table.

Jazz quickly shoved everything back into her own bag and stood. Then she remembered to get the phone back to her ear. Was she going to the Nasty Burger?

“ _Saturday,_ ” Danny’s voice said.

Jazz was lost. She’d missed a fair part of the conversation, clearly.

“ _What?_ ”

Oh, Valerie was confused, too.

“ _Don’t,_ ” Danny said. “ _Don’t talk to me until Saturday. If you want me to believe you, then promise me that you’ll leave me alone until Saturday._ ”

Not the Nasty Burger, then.

“ _I promise,_ ” Valerie said.

“ _Actually?_ ”

“Of course she does, Danny,” Jazz said.

“ _Yes. Actually,_ ” Valerie said. “ _Just make sure you take care of yourself until then, okay?_ ”

Oh, Valerie knew him so well. Jazz would make sure her little brother was okay, whether he liked it or not. She pulled up her texts to ask Danny where she should meet him (hadn’t he started his conversation with Valerie by saying he needed Jazz?).

Heard most of the call

Are you at home? I’m omw

She brought the phone back up to keep listening, but there was just the dial tone.

She’d have to get home then, and talk to Danny.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tada!  
> That's the last of what I've got actually written already, though. If anyone has any ideas/suggestions, that would be fantastic. I've got bits and pieces from like. Later on, once Valerie is established in the internship and Danny gets comfortable around the GiW agents, but nothing in the time where they're still getting to that point.  
> (I see everybody else doing this so) If you've got suggestions or whatever, I am on tumblr. Idk how to make it a link but https://arnim.tumblr.com/ask  
> (I also read (love and cherish) all of the comments even if I don't respond.)


End file.
